One Week Left To Enter Poetry Awards

SCHOOLS POETRY COMPETITON CLOSING SOON
May 21, 2007

Press Release: Select:Intermedia

Hey! There's Only One Week Left To Enter The 2007 NZ Post National Schools Poetry Awards And Win Cool Prizes.

Not only could you win cash and great prizes, but your poem may be turned into a song by award winning musician, Barnaby Weir from The Black Seeds and Fly My Pretties!

This year the winner takes home $500 cash, with all ten finalists receiving $100 cash and an all expenses paid trip to Wellington to attend a poetry master class with top New Zealand poets, including Bill Manhire, from the International Institute of Modern Letters, at Victoria University.

Year 12 and 13 students, and their teachers, head to www.nzpost.co.nz/poetryawards for an entry form, call 0800501501, or check out the posters at your school!

Musician Barnaby Weir is excited by the ‘Liberate Your Words’ poetry competition.

“It’s cool to have the opportunity to put a young person’s poem to music, to bring together two art forms in this competition and create something new. It’s something I’ve never done before and I’m looking forward to the challenge. I see poems as songs too.”

International Institute of Modern Letters director, Bill Manhire says poetry doesn't live in an ivory tower

“People shouldn’t be scared of it. The fact one of the winning poems will be interpreted in song I hope will show students that the best poems live on the tongue and in the heart, as well as on the page.”

New Zealand Post chief executive, John Allen says poetry is a great way for young people to express themselves.

We hope these awards encourage young people to think about using poetry as a public way of expressing what is of interest to them.”

Entries close 5pm Monday May 28.

The New Zealand Post National Schools Poetry Award is supported by the New Zealand Book Council, Booksellers New Zealand, the New Zealand Society of Authors, and Sport and Landfall.

ENDS.

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