Poets fight it out for Bard of Worcestershire title (From Worcester News)

Poets fight it out for Bard of Worcestershire title

ENTRANTS from Droitwich Spa and Redditch have been shortlisted to take the Bard of Worcestershire title.

Maggie Doyle and Sarah James, both from Droitwich, and Redditch resident Tony Goodwin have made it in to the final 10 of the Worcestershire Literary Festival competition.

The ten shortlisted poets will now take part in the launch event of the festival in Worcester Cathedral on the evening of Friday, June 17.

The new competition will see one of the poets crowned the first ever Bard of Worcestershire and become the county’s first ever poet laureate. The competition attracted more than 40 entries.

The winner of the competition will receive £100, a trophy, certificate, restaurant vouchers from Little Venice in Worcester and a selection of poetry books from Waterstones in Worcester. Two runners up will also receive a trophy and other prizes.

Lisa Ventura, festival director of the Worcestershire Literary Festival said: “We have such amazingly talented poets in the county and the standard of the entries for this competition was extremely high, so it was a very tough job to have to shortlist 10 to take part in our launch event. Other cities and localities have a poet laureate such as Birmingham, Warwick, Stratford to name but a few, so there is no reason why Worcester and Worcestershire shouldn’t have one.”

Tickets for the launch event at Worcester Cathedral at 7.30pm cost £7.50. They are on sale now at worcslitfest.com or by calling 01905 611427.