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This year students of López de Arenas Secondary School in Marchena (in the province of Seville, Spain) did a project with their philosophy teacher Antonio Martín, making creative word videos from which we have selected the five words for Given Words 2023. You can watch all of their 'word videos' here.
We invite you to write a poem which includes the five words and send it to us before midnight on 25 August, National Poetry Day. Please see the full rules below.
We will award prizes for the Best Poem and the Best Poem by Under-16s. The winners will receive books courtesy of The Cuba Press and Massey University Press (see below).
And the five words are…THE RULES:
Mikaela Nyman writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction in English and Swedish. Widely anthologised, most recently in No Other Place to Stand (2022) and Madness: a world poetry anthology (2023). The 2021 Writer in Residence for Massey University and Palmerston North City. Her debut poetry collection was shortlisted for the Nordic Council Literature Prize 2020. Her second poetry collection is out in August. This year's Lysaght-Watt R H Morrieson literary awards poetry judge.
Sophia Wilson grew up on unceded Anaiwan land in Australia and is now based in southern Aotearoa New Zealand. An arts graduate and former mental health worker, she is the author of Sea Skins, a poetry collection published in 2023 by flying island books.
Charles Olsen is an artist, poet and filmmaker based in Spain. His third poetry collection, La rebeldía del sol ('Rebellious Sun') is published by Olifante Ediciones de Poesía. He will be participating in the inaugural Aotearoa Poetry Film Festival in Wellington in November 2023.
About the prizes
The winner of Best Poem will receive Iris and Me by Philippa Werry, courtesy of The Cuba Press, and A Kind of Shelter Whakaruru-taha edited by Witi Ihimaera and Michelle Elvy, courtesy of Massey University Press.
The winner of Best Poem by Under-16s will also receive Iris and Me by Philippa Werry, courtesy of The Cuba Press, and the soon-to-be-published Ziggle!, The Len Lye Art Activity Book by Rebecca Fawkner, courtesy of Massey University Press.
Read Paula Green's review of Iris and Me on Poetry Box.
Read TK Roxborogh's review of A Kind of Shelter Whakaruru-taha on Kete Books.