Watch this space for the 9th edition of Given Words! This year the words will be presented in creative videos made by students of Te Parito Kōwhai Russley School, Christchurch, alongside words from their teacher Melanie Koster and the Wellington-based artist Malcolm Doidge.
On 1 August 2024, we will publish here the five words which you have to weave into a poem by 23 August, Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day.
We will be awarding a prize for the Best Poem and a prize for the Best Poem by Under-16s. The winners will receive prizes courtesy of The Cuba Press and Massey University Press. In addition the winning poems will be translated into Spanish and published in the journal of island literatures, Trasdemar.
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For further enquiries you can contact us at nzgivenwords@gmail.com
In the meantime you can hear the winners from 2023 read their poems' on NZ Poetry Shelf and read the poems from last year in the previous posts. Also, Under-16s winner Boh Harris's poem 'The Broken School' was featured on the Spanish educational project Un poema cada semana ('A poem every week') including an in-depth analysis of the poem and activities for students (in Spanish).