The Plough Arts Centre in Great Torrington has today (19 January) announced that Roger McGough OBE CBE, one of the nation’s most well-known and best-loved poets, will be the judge of The 2021 Plough Poetry Prize.
The announcement launches this year’s competition, with the deadline for entries revealed to be 31 March.
The Plough Poetry Prize is now in its 18th year. In 2019, the last year it ran, the competition received 1,425 entries from all over the world, and the winner was Heidi Williamson, for her poem, ‘With a rootless lily held in front of him’.
The Prize has always attracted high profile poets to act as judge, with two former poet laureates – Sir Andrew Motion and Carol Ann Duffy – among the list of past judges.
Entries can be on any topic and can be up to forty lines in length.
There is no age limit on entrants, and the competition receives entries from children and adults of all ages.
The first prize is £1,000, plus feedback from Roger McGough himself.
This year’s competition was delayed from last year due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.
“In all the strangeness and difficulty of the last year, we expect there was also a lot of creativity,” said The Plough’s Director, Richard Wolfenden-Brown. “In amongst all the poems written during lockdown, there may well be the next Plough Prize winner.”
“I am looking forward to being released from my self-inflicted lockdown, to run into a field and get behind The Plough,” said McGough. “I expect the ploughshares to turn up poetic gems by the sackful.”
Described by former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy as “the patron saint of poetry,” Roger McGough is one of Britain’s best-loved poets for both adults and children. He is the presenter of Poetry Please on Radio 4. He was awarded his OBE for services to poetry in 1997 and his CBE in 2004. As well as the Freedom of the City of Liverpool, McGough’s many accolades include numerous literary awards and honorary academic degrees.
More information on The 2021 Plough Poetry Prize, and the online entry form, can be found at: theploughartscentre.org.uk/poetry-prize.
Phot credits: Nick Wright Photography