June 19
Thomas Gray Anniversary – Poetry Competition
Theme: ‘In response to Gray’s Elegy’
http://thomasgray2016.org/poetry-competition /
In the run-up to the tercentenary of Gray’s birth in 2016,
The Stoke Poges Society is organising the second
of three annual poetry competitions, including an Open Class
and a School Class (open to anyone in full-time school education)
Closing date: 19th June 2015
Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,
reputed to have been written at St Giles’, Stoke Poges, was first published in 1751
and immediately recognised as a classic of English literature.
Verses from the Elegy are inscribed on the sides of Gray’s Monument
erected by John Penn in 1799 which now belongs to the National Trust.
Judges: Carol Rumens, currently Visiting Professor of Creative Writing
at Bangor University, Gwynedd: www.carolrumens.co.uk.
Her forthcoming poetry collection provisionally entitled Animal People
will be published by Seren in 2016.
School Class: Roger Askew, Chairman of The Stoke Poges Society.
Cash prizes totalling £750 will be divided among the winning entrants.
Entries can be made via http://thomasgray2016.org/poetry-competition /