Four Counties Poetry Competition – work here, live here, study here, be born here and you qualify…

For the very first time Rottingdean Writers’ Group is running a competition specially designed for poets connected to London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
The judge is John McCullough, academic and prize-winning author of The Frost Fairs. I almost feel sorry for him because he has promised to read every single entry.
I imagine that a volunteer admin team will weed out the  short stories (to a poetry competition? I bet there will be a few), the entries without a name, address and fee attached, the ineligible ones, the ones written in Portuguese without a translation, or scrawled in red capitals warning about the end of the world…but still the amount of potential ‘proper’ entries could be large. Greater London has a population of about eight million: West Sussex, East Sussex, Surrey and Kent has probably something like the same when counted together and if you include the people who work within the four counties, but live elsewhere, and those who were born here, but now call somewhere else in the world home, it seems like an awfully big number for essentially a local competition.
But don’t feel too sorry for John McCullough if you’re a poet. Instead grab the opportunity to have your work read by someone who understands poetry and who I guess probably quite likes reading it.

Here’s the important stuff:

The deadline is 30 January 2015.
The fee is £5 for one poem, £10 for two or £12 for three poems. The fee for each additional poem after that is £4.
Send entries to: Rottingdean Writers Group, P.O. Box 4637, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 9ER. 
Three major cash prizes and discretionary honorary awards will be presented at a ceremony on 25 February 2015:
£750, sponsored by Wellesley Wealth Advisory
£250, sponsored by The English Language Centre
£100, sponsored by Chalk Gallery, Lewes

Entry forms and  the full competition rules are available HERE 

photo credit: sarflondondunc via photopin cc