Saturday, March 21, 2009

Poetry Round-up

A reminder to all pupils that entries for this year's Peter Dix Memorial Senior Prize for Poetry (left) and Junior Poetry Prize, are due by the last day of term. See noticeboards for details.

The poet Louise C. Callaghan has been working with our Primary class over the last couple of days. Congratulations to Louise on being shortlisted for the Strokestown Poetry Prize (English language section). The Strokestown International Festival takes place from May 1st to May 3rd. Next term one of our podcasts will be an interview with Louise about her own poetry, and the ways she runs her workshops.

Seamus Heaney has just been awarded the David Cohen Award for Literature; part of the award is the chance to nominate the winner of the Clarissa Luard Award, which is for a literature organisation which encourages young people. Our Nobel Laureate has chosen Poetry Aloud, which our pupils have taken part in for several years - a fine and typically thoughtful choice. He talked about his choice on BBC Radio 4's 'Front Row' this week (you can listen again on the site, and via their podcast), and said that learning poetry and speaking it through Poetry Aloud provided an 'inner grace' for its participants.

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