Young poets across Hampshire invited to enter a competition writing about 'home'

Hampshire Cultural Trust, with the Winchester Poetry Festival, have launched this year’s search to find the top young poets in Hampshire in the annual Hampshire Young Poets Competition.

Entrants are asked to write a poem of no more than 14 lines about what by home means to them, whether as a place or found in the people who matter most.

Entries are open to young people who live or study in Hampshire in three different age categories; four-seven, eight-11 and 12-16 years. The competition is free to enter and there will be National Book Token prizes for the winners, matched with P&G Wells book tokens for the schools of the winning entrants to spend on poetry books.

The poems will be judged by Hampshire poet, Nazneen Ahmed Pathak who said: ‘Home is a rich and wonderful theme for poetry and it’s a brilliant focus for this year’s Young Poets competition. Whether it’s thinking about our own homes, families, and the places that matter to us, or making people feel at home in our community, or thinking about those who don’t have homes, or those who have to move from one place to another to make a new home – there’s just so much inspiration in this theme for poetry that matters. I can’t wait to read all the contributions.’

The closing date for entries is midnight on Monday, July 31.

The winners will be contacted by email or post and officially announced at an awards ceremony in October.

For full details, go to: hampshireculture.org.uk/hantsyoungpoets23.