Follow us
Contact us
Ashbourne Festival
St John’s Community Hall
King Street
Ashbourne DE6 1EA
01335 348 707
© Ashbourne Arts
Company No. 4420519
Registered in England and Wales
Charity No. 1120239
2Ol2
ASHBOURNE FESTIVAL
22June - 8July
Ashbourne Festival - Poetry Competition
Following on from the success of last year, Ashbourne Festival is delighted to announce its second Poetry Competition. The theme chosen for this Olympic year is Winning and we are very pleased that the new Derbyshire Laureate, Matt Black has agreed to judge the adult section of our competition. Once again three prizes will be awarded plus one more for the best poem submitted by a Derbyshire resident.
This year sees our first Young Poets competition, entries to be based on the same theme as above. We are proud to announce that the popular comic verse poet Paul Fox has agreed to judge these entries. The Young Poets competition is divided into two sections, under 11 years and 11-16 years and prizes will be awarded for the three best poems in each category.
Derbyshire Laureate - Matt Black (Adult Poetry)
Matt writes poems for adults and children, enjoys reading and performing, and likes to be entertaining and thought-provoking. He is experienced in leading workshops in all sorts of situations. He has lived in Sheffield for the last 25 years, and has 2 grown-up children.
His collections are Swimmer (for adults), Goblin In The Fridge (Poetry Book Society Children’s Bookshelf Summer Choice, 2011) and the prose-poem novella Plot 161 (Spout Publications) set on allotments.
His poems are published in magazines including Staple, The Rialto, The North and Magma. He has won awards and commissions, and has toured (with British Council and Arts Council support) in Germany, U.S.A., Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic. He enjoys working with artists and musicians.
Current projects
The Nonsense Olympics: a celebration of the Olympics and a tribute to Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Judges 2012
Paul Fox (Young Poets)
Paul’s work can be found on www.paulfoxpoetry.com
A former teacher, Paul is resident poet at BBC Radio Derby and was at one time Poet in Residence at JCB. His books include Midnight Jogger and Going for the Juggler
Writers who have influenced Fox's style are, William McGonagall,
Spike Milligan, Ogden
Nash, Hillaire Belloc, Pam Ayres, Roger McGough and many more.
The main problem is
that after reading four or five poems by the same writer you become accustomed to
his style and the element of incongruity is lost or fails to surprise.
To counter
this Fox has used a great variety of tone, form and taste. "You never know what you're
going to get".
