In order to promote poetry, acumen organises readings, tours, poetry festivals etc. Please keep an eye on this page for further information.

THE GREAT CREATE
AN AWARD-WINNING FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS
six weeks celebrating a cultural tapestry
from 80 of the South West's finest artists.

20th May -- 28th June 2009
 

www.thegreatcreate.co.uk            info@thegreatcreate.co.uk  

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A Cholmondeley Award winner, Dannie Abse’s New Selected Poems was published in 2009 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of his first collection.

Lynne Hjelmgaard “has an ear for memory, for dream, and for the co-existence of the imagined and the real”

William Oxley will be reading from his new collection, Sunlight in a Champagne Glass (Rockingham Press, 2009).

Caroline Price’s most recent collection is Wishbone (Shoestring Press, 2008).

Tickets:  £5.00 / £3.00 (conc)  0208 348 8716

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    TORBAY FESTIVAL OF POETRY

22nd - 26th OCTOBER 2009

email to reserve a brochure due
middle of July.

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TORBAY OPEN POETRY COMPETITION 2009

THIS YEAR'S JUDGES            

MARIO PETRUCCI: Four times winner of the London Writers’ competition, Mario is an ecologist, physicist, Arvon tutor and the only poet to have been in residence at the Imperial War Museum and BBC Radio 3. He masterminds numerous literary and literacy projects for institutions as varied as Southwell Workhouse, the Museum of London and Imperial War Museum North. Shrapnel and Sheets (Headland) won a PBS Recommendation, while Heavy Water (Enitharmon) captured the coveted Daily Telegraph/Arvon Prize and is the subject of the award-winning film ‘Half Life: a Journey to Chernobyl’ (Seventh Art). Flowers of Sulphur (Enitharmon) won both the Arts Council Writers’ and New London Writers Awards.

ALISON VARNDELL has a degree in literature and philosophy. She began teaching at a top state school, quickly acquiring a reputation as an inspired and inspirational teacher of poetry. Believing that poetry can help change the lives of all young people, Alison has also run youth arts organisations for underachieving and disaffected students, creative writing workshops and staging live events in which they can perform their work. She currently works with students at risk of exclusion.

FULL RESULTS OF
TORBAY OPEN POETRY COMPETITION 2008

 ADULT PRIZE:  judged by Sheenagh Pugh

 FIRST PRIZE

 The Gardens of Ho Chi Minh City                                 Wendy French

 SECOND PRIZE

 The Cost of Boys                                                         Angela France

 THIRD PRIZE

 Joint winners:

 Heavy Rain                                                                   Maxine Green
  Bed for the Long Night                                                Alan Dunnett

HIGHLY COMMENDED

That Was Now                                                             C.J. Allen
The Books He Never Wrote                                         Ross Cogan
Synaesthesia                                                                 Chris Considine
Birthdays                                                                      Brian Docherty
Dear F                                                                         Gill McEvoy
Sister Mary Magdalene’s French Lesson                       Jo Peters
A New Way                                                                 Michael Pickering
2pm, Outside the Ground                                              Nigel Pickard
Night Wanderer                                                            Olive M. Ritch
When She Died                                                            Shirley Wright

14 – 18 YEARS’ PRIZE:  judged by Helen Mort

 FIRST PRIZE

 The Barren Land                                                          Richard O’Brien

 SECOND PRIZE

 CCTV Cities                                                                Charlotte Geater

 COMMENDED

 We, the Pigeon                                                             Amy Blakemore