Final chance for poetry competition

UNPUBLISHED local poets have their final chance to enter a competition that could see them share in a prize fund worth £950.

The Inaugural Funeral Services Northern Ireland National Poetry Competition has set Friday 26 October at twelve midday as the closing date for entries.

Finalists from seven regions will each be awarded £100 worth of Co-operative vouchers and the chance to recite their winning poems to an invited audience at a prestigious event in the Long Gallery at Parliament Buildings Stormont on Friday 2 November where the overall Northern Ireland winner will be announced.

Judges, Beverley Brown, general manager Funeral Services Northern Ireland; Marie-Louise Muir, BBC arts and culture broadcaster and author of blog “Marie-Louise Muir’s Arts Extra”; Patsy Horton, Chair of Publishing NI and managing editor Blackstaff Press; and poet Paul Maddern, Tutor in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University, Teaching Fellow at Leed’s University and author of poetry collection “The Beachcomber’s Report”, gathered at Parliament Buildings, Stormont with Chairman of the Culture, Arts and Leisure Committee, Michelle McIlveen and local MLA Sammy Douglas, to announce the impending closing date of the local competition which hopes to inspire unpublished poets right across Northern Ireland to put pen to paper.

The theme of the competition is “Stars” and Funeral Services Northern Ireland anticipates that this inaugural poetry competition will give entrants the opportunity to honour those stars who watch over them with their eulogy poems.

Full details of how to enter and terms and conditions can be found online at www.fsni-nationalpoetrycomp.co.uk.