The new publishing venture, Ward Wood, is off to a running start — and not only because they’ll be publishing my own new novel, A Clash of Innocents, as their first book!  And also not because they have two new wonderful poetry collections lined up for October and November.  Oh no.  That’s not enough for the intrepid duo of Adele Ward and Mike Fortune-Wood.  They have also announced a new poetry competition in support of London Homeless Shelters to be judged by none other than the UK Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.

The Lumen/Camden International Poetry Competition is open to anyone, and the winner will have a pamphlet of their work published and distributed by Ward Wood.  As Adele Ward explains:

I think the contest will attract writers of all standards, and poems will be judged individually and anonymously so anybody could win. Just one poem could be enough to win publication of a 20-page pamphlet, and that’s actually quite unusual. The entry fee has also been kept low so that everybody could have a chance at entering. Carol Ann Duffy will be the judge. She’s the Patron of the Camden and Lumen Poetry Series and it’s wonderful to have her on board to make this competition extra special.
None of us are taking any income from this competition, so, whether or not people win they will have helped the homeless. The winner gets 50 free copies of the pamphlet to keep, sell or give away. More will be printed and sold from the website and at the Camden and Lumen events, and all proceeds from sales of the remaining pamphlets will go to help the homeless.

I think this is a marvelously generous offer and a fantastic opportunity.  I urge everyone who writes poetry, no matter where in the world you live, no matter whether you have been published before or not, to give this a try.  It’s for a great cause, it’s inexpensive, and hey — when else can you have the Poet Laureate read your work?  The details of the guidelines can be found here. Do follow them carefully, and good luck!

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Thanks to latimesblogs.latimes.com for the great image.