Carol Ann Duffy Judges International Poetry Pamphlet Competition in Aid of the Homeless

There’s a chance to have your poetry published in a 20-page pamphlet while also supporting the homeless, with the added benefit of being selected by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. The Lumen/Camden Poetry Competition is unusual as the entry fee per poem is just £2.50 to make it possible for everybody to have a try. The winner will also be selected on the basis of just one prizewinning poem (maximum length 40 lines), so you don’t have to submit the whole pamphlet for a chance of being published. If you want to submit more poems there are discounts, with 6 poems costing just £10.

This is the first year for the Lumen/Camden Poetry Competition and it’s the initiative of poet Ruth O’Callaghan, founder and organiser of the Camden and Lumen Poetry Series. This popular project supports the homeless in the Cold Weather Shelters in the Camden and Kings Cross areas of London, and all income from the competition will go to support the same cause. None of the people involved in organising the competition will take any income from it, so it’s set to give a real boost to the amount donated by the project every year.

Poetry is really making a practical difference in helping the homeless thanks to Ruth’s tireless efforts and wonderful new initiatives. The Lumen/Camden Poetry Competition will not just benefit the people in the Cold Weather Shelters, but it will also help a poet to get their pamphlet into print. With entries invited from all over the world there will be poets of all standards joining in to help raise money for charity while competing for the prestigious prize of being selected by Carol Ann Duffy, patron of the Camden and Lumen Poetry Series.

The winner will receive 50 copies of their pamphlet to keep, sell, or give to friends. They will also be invited to read at the regular Lumen and Camden venues, if they can make it and would like to, and their pamphlets will also be offered for sale online and at the twice-monthly events. All money raised from pamphlet sales by the publishers and by the Camden and Lumen project will go to the Cold Weather Shelters.

The closing date is early next year on February 14th, but it’s never too soon to enter. Entry fees received from now on will go towards helping the Cold Weather shelters as winter approaches. The pamphlet will be published by Ward Wood Publishing, and full details on how to enter are on the website http://www.wardwoodpublishing.co.uk

You can enter by post by sending your poems and a cheque to Ruth O’Callaghan, or you can send the poems by post and pay by Paypal if you prefer. For international and other entries it’s possible to enter by using Paypal and then either posting the poems or sending them in an email. Regulars at events can hand their entry to Ruth, who will pass them on to Carol Ann Duffy. Full details are on the Ward Wood website.

Do join in and also post details about this competition on your own blogs and websites as the competition is likely to raise a substantial amount to help the homeless while also giving a poet a highly desirable prize.

I Am The Webmeister for Camden and Lumen Poetry

I was pleased to be asked by Ruth O'Callaghan if I could create a website for the excellent Camden and Lumen Poetry project. We were chatting after a really fun and well attended open mic yesterday where I sloshed out the wine and I was really pleased to meet a poet friend called Peter who I have only 'met' online before. He gave a great reading of his poem Jazz Sax, which will go forward for consideration for the next anthology published by Camden and Lumen. If any of you can get to these events in London I'd love to meet you.

The website is very new as I've been building it this morning and doing all the writing for it so far plus adding photos! You can see it on http://www.camdenlumen.wordpress.com and I'd appreciate a bit of feedback in the comments on the site. Forthcoming events are listed there.

Camden and Lumen Poetry is a project organised by the poet Ruth O’Callaghan. The project not only supports poetry: all proceeds go to help the Cold Weather Shelters in Camden and Kings Cross. Regular poetry readings are held in the Camden and Lumen (Kings Cross) venues, with well-known authors appearing alongside new and unpublished poets.

Publishers and magazine editors present their writers, published poets make appearances, and the events include the opportunity for audience members to read at least one poem. Poets from the floor can submit the poems they read to be considered for an annual anthology published each Spring. This gives poets at all levels the chance to appear alongside the famous names in each anthology.

Carol Ann Duffy became a patron of Camden and Lumen Poetry in January 2010, adding extra prestige to this well-established and well attended project.

The events have a warm and friendly atmosphere, with wine and soft drinks, a raffle to win a surprise parcel of books. There are also books available to buy, including some available at discount generously provided by publishers. The price of entry, the drinks bar, the raffle and other fundraising activities all go to support the Cold Weather Shelters.

Both of the venues, Camden and Lumen, have the readings in the same place where people sleep in the Cold Weather Shelters, making it a particularly special place to attend and to support poetry.

The addresses for the venues are:

Camden Poetry – Trinity United Reform Church, 1 Buck St, Camden Town, London WC1

Tube: Camden Town

Lumen Poetry – Lumen, 88 Tavistock Place, London WC1

Tubes: Russell Square , Kings Cross, St Pancras.