Tuesday was a really good day for many poets throughout Northern Ireland.
Dozens of emails went out from CAP HQ, informing people that their poems will be included in this year’s Poetry in Motion Anthology. We really enjoyed watching the good news spread across Social Media and hearing how delighted people are to see their work in print. We’d like to offer our congratulations to all the poets included in the anthology. It was such a pleasure to read your work and we’re very grateful for your willingness to share it with us. Can we also offer our heartfelt commiseration to those writers whose poems have not been selected this year? Please do plan to submit your work again when the 2018 call out opens later in the year.
This year we had almost 400 submissions for the anthology and work was of such a high quality, our three poetry judges, (Damian Smyth, Maria McManus and Stephen Sexton), really had their work cut out, making the final selection. A lot of strong coffee was consumed, (and several cakes), but after a long day’s deliberation all three were really pleased with the selection of poems which will make up this year’s anthology. The poems included are imaginative, powerfully written and cover a wide range of eclectic themes and styles. We can’t wait to let people read it.
The Poetry in Motion anthology will be launched at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy on Sunday 18th March 2018. This event will include a reading by some of the poets included in the anthology, a few words from our esteemed judges and the announcement of this year’s winner of the Seamus Heaney Award for New Writing. Please put the date in your diary now and plan to be there.
Further information including transport arrangements will follow shortly.