RSPB and Rialto Poetry Prize

I received this today and pass it on to you. It looks like a very good one:

I thought you might like to hear about The RSPB and The Rialto Nature Poetry Competition.

As well as offering poets the chance to win considerable cash prizes and publication of their poems, the competition will raise money for conservation and poetry. We are working in partnership with leading independent UK poetry magazine, The Rialto, as we feel the magazine will be the perfect place to showcase the winning entries.

1st prize is £1000

2nd Prize is £400

3rd Prize is £300

Additional Prize is a personal tour with Mark Cocker of his most cherished wildlife places in East Anglia.

Our two judges are former Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion and the leading Nature Writer, Mark Cocker

The entry fee is £6 for the first poem and £3 for each subsequent entry.

Full details and the facility to enter online can be found The Rialto website here:

http://www.therialto.co.uk/pages/the-magazine/nature-poetry-competition-...

If you would prefer to enter by post, you can download an entry form from the website or conversely, get in touch and I can send you one.

Please do note the term ‘Nature Poetry’ will be given a wide interpretation by the judges. To help expand on this, I thought it would be useful to copy in Michael Mackmin’s mention of the competition is his most recent editorial for The Rialto:

So what is Nature Poetry? As the flier says, the judges will give this a wide interpretation. That’s up to them, but I’d imagine it won’t have to be just poems about creatures and beings that share the planet, or about ‘environmental concerns’. We are all air and water, everything we eat comes from the earth or the sea, most people know the roughness of a leaf or the heft of a stone can change a mood or express a feeling. I asked a 16 year old, What is nature? and she said, insects and grass: I asked a 32 year old the same question and she said, the sun and the moon and the stars and flowers and fruit and babies. You might just have to write your poems and take a risk.

I do hope that the poets amongst your group will be interested and if you can, please help spread word of the competition as far and wide as possible.