E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

The Rialto magazine begins a call for entries to a new national poetry competition run in partnership with the RSPB, and judged by former Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion , and prize-winning nature writer, Mark Cocker . The poetry magazine and Europe’s largest conservation charity are encouraging poets to submit work in response to the competition theme, ‘Nature Poetry’. The Rialto ’s editor Michael Mackmin said “The judges will give a very wide interpretation to our theme of 'nature poetry'. The competition will help raise funds to support the vital work of both The Rialto and RSPB.” A small entry fee of £6 for the first poem and £3 for each subsequent poem will be charged. The closing date for entries is 30 April 2012 . For rules and to enter visit www.therialto.co.uk or contact Matt Howard on 01603 697515 or matthew.howard@rspb.org.uk

Eyewear recommends entering the Troubadour poetry prize .  Details also below: Announcing the £2,500 Fifth Annual Troubadour International Poetry Prize Judged by Susan Wicks & David Harsent (with both judges reading all poems) Sponsored by Cegin Productions Prizes: 1st £2,500, 2nd £500, 3rd £250 & 20 prizes of £20 each Plus a Spring 2012 Coffee-House-Poetry season-ticket and  a prizewinners' Coffee-House Poetry reading with Susan Wicks & David Harsent on Mon 28th Nov 2011 for all prize-winning poets Submissions: by Mon 17th Oct 2011 Judges: - Susan Wicks has lived and worked in France, Ireland and America and has taught at University College Dublin and University of Kent; she is the author of five collections of poetry including 'Singing Underwater' (1992), which won the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Prize, and 'The Clever Daughter' (1996), which was shortlisted for both T.S. Eliot and Forward Prizes, and she was a Poetry Society 'New Gen...

Eyewear recommend this competition. See details below the fourth annual troubadour international poetry prize judged by gwyneth lewis & maurice riordan with both judges reading all poems prizes:  1 st  £1000, 2 nd  £500, 3 rd  £250 & 20 prizes of £20 each plus  a spring 2011 coffee-house poetry season ticket and   a prizewinners’ coffee-house poetry reading with gwyneth lewis & maurice riordan on mon 29 th  nov 2010  ...for all prize-winning poets submissions by fri 15 th  oct 2010 judges Gwyneth Lewis  was the first  National Poet of Wales  (2005) and her words appear over the  Wales Millennium Centre , opened in 2004. Educated at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen, a bilingual school near Pontypridd, and at Oxford, Columbia and Harvard Universities, she has written oratorio as well as having written on clinical depression and  Two in a Boat—The True Story of a Marital Rite of Passage , inspired by a saili...

Perhaps nothing can make someone cringe more than the phrase "new poetry award" - there are so many awards these days, it sometimes seem there aren't enough days in the week to respond to them all.  However, poetry needs some awards, if only to stir interest, and overcome the obstacles that many smaller presses have in competing with the overwhelming extra authority and clout a few of the largest imprints and houses seem to possess, as if by right.  So it is good news to see that Coffee-House Poetry at The Troubadour has launched a prize for debut collections.  Out of 77 submitted, 15 have been shortlisted - see below.  Congratulations to all, especially Abi Curtis, Carrie Etter, Tom Chivers , and Katrina Naomi , since I have read those collections and appreciated them; but the others no doubt hold promise too.  I am sorry to see that b/w was not selected, or, for that matter, Cinammon Press books seem not to have been submitted - surely, Sheila Hillier 's de...

Speaking of awards ceremonies, a good friend of mine, poet Giles Goodland , has just won a major poetry prize - £5000, first place, for best poem in the Cardiff International Poetry Competition.  I am very pleased to see this news.  Goodland is one of the best and most significant of contemporary English poets, and hopefully this will bring his work to an ever-wider readership.  I am currently reading his Oystercatcher pamphlet.

Congrats to Karen Solie , fast becoming a fixture on the Canadian poetry scene, for her Griffin win.  Also, hats off to an Irish poet, who also won.  Maybe next time, the paper this links to can feature the International winner's photo instead - or is this the new Olympic Spirit of Grab That Podium or whatever that already-forgotten slogan was from those Winter Olympics?  Seriously, 130,000 Canadian dollars is a lot to fork out on two poets, and hopefully over time this prize will lead to people actually reading Canadian poetry somewhere beyond our borders, with anything approaching the love and enthusiasm they show for Scottish and Irish and Australian poets.  Canada is becoming a cool place, eh?  Now David Cameron wants to borrow our vicious cost-cutting methods from the Chretien years.  Will he start speaking in that funny way too?

June 16th - in London - will require all the chutzpah of an Orson Welles shuttling across town in a rented ambulance - to allow poets and poetry fans to enjoy what will be on offer that night. I count at least three major don't-miss events the same evening: The Poetry London summer issue launch, featuring readings from Emily Berry and others; The Michael Marks small press pamphlet awards at the British Library; and the Eric Gregory winners reading. Put that red light on your vehicle now, and rock on!

Congratulations to Alice Oswald , for winning the first ever Ted Hughes award. Meanwhile, the UK National Poetry competition has Helen Dunmore , the novelist/poetas its first place winner. Good to see Cherry Smyth, Jane Yeh, Jon Stone and Sam Riviere - to name a few - among the commended. Now I really must go take my spring break as promised ....

There are too many poetry competitions. There are not enough poetry competitions. Both statements are half-true. Until a poet has won one, it is worth going on. Or not bothering. So many of my poet friends and colleagues see-saw between the self-hate that is entering, the self-love that is entering, such black holes, that suck up our money, our hopes, and hold onto our best unpublished poems for months and months. And yet, and yet. Some poetry competitions are more equal than others. One of the UK's best is the Poetry London one. Closing date this year is 31 May. And the judge? Michael Longley . That elicits a wow from Eyewear . Longley is a master lyricist, and one of the finest Irish poets since Yeats . It'd be an honour to be selected by such a poet. Speaking of Poetry London , it launches its latest issue on St Patrick's Day March 17, at Foyles, Soho.