NEWS
Ten-liners Competition 2024
Members of Ver Poets are invited to submit entries for John Cotton's Ten-liners Competition, which will be judged by last year's winner, Stephen Claughton. Submit up to three poems (maximum of ten lines each). Entry is free and there will be three prizes of a year's subscription to a poetry magazine. Winning, commended and selected poems will appear in the competition anthology and may be posted on our website and social media.
Details of how to enter were published in the summer issue of "Ver Poets Poetry World" and will be included in the monthly members' e-letter between now and the closing date of 30th November. To join Ver Poets and be eligible to take part in the competition, see our Membership page.
Poems on the Website
Winning poems from our 2024 Open Competition are already on the website Competitions page. Each month we will be adding to the Poems page one of the highly commended or commended poems from the competition anthology. The first is "The Lucky Generation" by Peter Sutton, which was highly commended.
"Ver Poets Poetry World"
The Summer 2024 Issue of our newsletter, "Ver Poets Poetry World", has now been circulated to members. It contains the three winning poems from our 2024 Open Competition as well as news about entry for this year's Ten-Liners Competition for Ver members. In addition to Members' News, Views & Recommendations, there are other regular features, Introducing New Members and A Poet's Diary, as well as a review of three radio programmes about W. H. Auden. There is also an obituary of long-standing Ver member, Doreen Van-Cauter, who sadly died recently. To become a member of Ver Poets and receive copies of the newsletter three times a year and other benefits of membership, go to our Membership page.
Open Mic at The Mad Squirrel
Reluctantly we had to postpone our open mic at The Mad Squirrel on 10th July, as it clashed with the football. Sincere apologies to anyone who was planning to attend. It will now be held on Wednesday 31st July at 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start (see our events page).
Open Competition Zoom Reading on 6th July
We had a very successful Zoom reading on Saturday of poems from this year's Ver Poets Open Competition anthology. The winning poems will also be published on our website and in our newsletter.
We are very grateful to Merryn Williams for judging the competition and giving her comments on the poems. We were especially pleased to hear Merryn read poems from her latest collection, "After Hastings", and from her recently-published selection of "Ruth Bidgood: Chosen Poems". Both are available from Shoestring Press. We're looking forward to having Merryn read with us in person later in the year.
Part of the proceeds of this year's competition go to the St Albans District Foodbank and we were grateful to Haydar Shawkat from the Foodbank for attending the event and explaining the excellent work they do. Thanks, too, to everyone who read their poems and to Terry Jones and Gill Knibbs for organising the competition.
Pioneer Club Open Day is Massive Hit
We were pleased to see that Ver Poets were featured in an article in The St Albans Times about The Pioneer Club's Glastonbury Open Day on Sunday 30th June. There are photographs of Neil Beardmore singing the blues, Ver Committee members Stephen Claughton, Juliet Troy, Lesley Lilley & Greg Smith manning the Ver Poets table and Lesley & Juliet reading their poems. It was a great day out.
Open Competition 2024
The winners of the Ver Poets Open Competition 2024, judged by Merryn Williams, have now been announced. Details can be found on our Competitions Page. Congratulations to Josh Ekroy (1st), Damen O'Brien (2nd) and Robert Seatter (3rd), as well as to the highly commended & commended poets and others selected for the Competition Anthology. There will be a prize-giving event via Zoom on Saturday 6th July at 2.00 pm, when poets will read poems from the Anthology and Merryn will deliver her adjudication report. She will also be reading some of her own poems. We are very grateful to her and to everyone who entered the Competition.
"Glastonbury Open Day" at The Pioneer Club, St Albans
We've been invited by The Pioneer Club in St Albans to take part in their "Glastonbury Open Day" on Sunday 30th June. We'll be manning a table with information about Ver Poets as well as publications by the society and its members, some of whom will be on hand to explain what we do. We will also be reading poems at various times during the day. More details will appear on our Events Page, when they're available. It promises to be an exciting day out with live-streaming of Glastonbury and DJ sets as well as Ver Poets. Our thanks to The Pioneer Club for inviting us.
