Ealing Autumn Festival poetry competition launched

Leading poet George Szirtes will judge this year’s Ealing Autumn Festival poetry competition, which will be based on the theme of Magna Carta and freedom, human rights and democracy.

This year’s festival is inspired by the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta and the poetry competition is open to anyone with cash prizes for the winners in two categories.

Mr Szirtes is particularly relevant as a judge, at the age of eight-years-old he fled with his family from a hostile political regime in Hungary. He is now one of the leading living poets and has been awarded international prizes including the T S Eliot prize for poetry.

Apart from judging the competition, Mr Szirtes will visit Ealing Central Library on October 11 and then later he will talk about the entries and present the prizes for the Magna Carta Poetry Competition at The Drayton Court, West Ealing.

Selected poets will be invited to read and the focus will be on younger poets in the afternoon at Ealing Central Library and on the adult age-group in the evening at The Drayton Court.

Mr Szirtes visited the festival last year with Clarissa Upchurch, his wife, and his grown-up children, Tom and Helen. Together, they gave an exciting and unusual programme of poetry, art and music.

The two categories are the adult group (19 years and over) and 18 years and under with cash prizes for the first three in each section.

You can enter online at www.ealingautumnfestival.co.uk; ask at your library for hard copy entry forms or telephone. 020 8567 7623.

Closing date for entries: Friday, September 4 and no late entries will be accepted.

14th July 2015