The Search is On to Find the

2010 Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year!

Now an established highlight of the Canterbury Festival calendar, this month sees the launch of the 2010 Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year Competition. The Festival is on the lookout for today’s best writers from all across Kent, and is encouraging them to submit a poem or series of poems to the competition and perhaps be crowned this year’s winner.

With over 200 entries last year, the Festival is encouraging budding poets to send in their poem by the deadline on Saturday 15 May.  Poems can be on any subject and previous entrants have written poems inspired by a variety of topics, conjuring images of the wilds of Africa and the blustery shoreline of Britain – evoking strong emotions and recalling experiences or creating new narratives with imaginative and compelling use of language.

Once all poems are submitted, an esteemed panel of judges will choose a longlist of entries, which will then be included in a published booklet available to entrants and the general public.

The Competition Final will be held on Thursday 7 October – where the shortlisted poems will be performed and the Poet of the Year title decided. The event will take place in the Dominican Priory, Canterbury, from 8pm – and will whet the appetite for the beginning of this year’s Canterbury Festival, which takes place between Saturday 16- Saturday 30 October. The final will combine the poetry readings with live musical entertainment, and is one of the community literature highlights of the year.

The 2010 judging panel will be chaired by Maggie Harris, a widely published poet and tutor and well known in the area. The 2009 Poet of the Year Dorothy Fryd, writer and performance poet, joins the panel alongside Nick Hunt, Member of the Canterbury Festival Friends Committee who founded the Competition in 2007.

A full set of rules and entry forms are available here or by calling the Festival Office on 01227 452853. Entry is £5 per poem and they should be posted to: Poet of the Year, Festival Office, Christ Church Gate, The Precincts, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2EE, or emailed to info@canterburyfestival.co.uk along with an application form.

The Friends committee organise several events throughout the year, and strive to offer something for all tastes. In a typical year there are Gala Balls, musical evenings, special visits, concerts, recitals and talks. Proceeds raised from the events go directly towards sustaining the Festival's development and programming ambitions.

Previous Events

A Night in Little Italy

Cameo Opera

What a warm welcome on a misty February evening to the first event of The Friends’ 2010 calendar.

A full house had an immediate sense of anticipatory excitement for the fun evening that was to follow.

Superbly presented colourful platters of ante pasta on tables, evocative of Italian festivities, were followed by our first taste of Cameo Opera’s repertoire, the five singers entering to the strains of ‘Funiculi Funicula’, setting the atmosphere for what was to follow, with a varied programme ranging from grand opera to Broadway, brilliantly accompanied by pianist Peter Bailey.

Following the Italian feast, the Barber of Seville administered a wet shave to a member of the audience, whilst giving a fine rendition of Largo al Factotum.

The evening continued with a delightful variety of familiar operatic and musical excerpts.  Particularly fine performances were ‘Memory’ from Cats and ‘Nessun Dorma’ from Turandot.  The evening concluded with the entire audience joining in the chorus of ‘Volare’.  Performances continuing in the car park afterwards as people departed saying “What a wonderful evening”.

Our thanks to Diane & Charles Gaskain, Debbie Cook and her team for the excellent food, Barman Paul Smith, Sylviane Martell and everyone involved. Also, of course, to Cameo Opera for a feast of music and merriment.

Jenny & Graham Pay

Saturday 6 February 2010 

Lower Hardres Village Hall, Canterbury  7.30 pm

The Poet of the Year 2009, Dorothy Fryd, has been chosen, for her beautiful poem On paper, this is an affair.

Read the full story by Judge Nick Hunt.

Also, congratulations to the following:

2009 Poet of the Year Short List

Anthologies are on sale from the Festival Office (£3)

Request a copy of the Poet of the Year 2009 anthology.

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