Poetry Africa calls for submissions of poems from learners

As part of the 25^th edition of their festival, the Poetry Africa Festival organised by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu Natal invites learners from primary and high schools to submit their poems as part of their yearly competition.

The festival looks forward to offering these prizes:

1^st prize: R3,000.00

2^nd prize: R1,500.00

3^rd prize: R1,000.00

Audience Award: R500

Participants can submit their videos on WhatsApp to 071 326 7272 until Friday 8 October at 5pm.

A selection of the submitted video clips will be posted on the Poetry Africa Facebook page. The winners will be announced during the 25^th Poetry Africa Festival on Saturday, 16 October 2021.

Guidelines:

1. There is no entry fee for participation
2. The competition is open to unpublished poets residing in South Africa.
3. Entries can be submitted in any official South African language.
4. Poems must be original, and the poets own work.
5. A poet may submit a maximum of two poems.
6. The length of the poems may not exceed 2 minutes per poem
7. Videos must be original and not contain other people’s copyrighted material
8. Poems must fall within the themes prescribed
9. Poems should be suitable for young audiences. (Excessive violence, sexually explicit content, explicit language and/or derogatory language to any group of people are discouraged)
10. The entry must be a video recording of the poet performing the poem. The video can be made on a cell phone. The recording must be sent on WhatsApp to 071 326 7272. The entry must include the poet’s name, surname, age, school name, schools contact details and title of the poem.
11. If you submit for other Poetry Africa 2021 competitions you need to submit different video’s for each competition
12. Poetry Africa has the right to share the poem on its Facebook page
13. A panel of judges will select three winners.
14. The judges’ decisions will be final, and no correspondence shall be entered into with any entrant.
15. An Audience Choice Prize will be awarded to the poet whose submission receives the most LIKES on the Poetry Africa Facebook page. Please note that only ethical marketing applies, e.g. no ‘vote exchange groups’ or buying likes allowed.
16. Poetry Africa reserves the right to exclude any submissions from being shared online.
17. The following criteria will be used to judge the submissions:
    • Content
    • Performance
    • Originality
18. By submitting an entry to the Poetry Africa, 2021 ONLINE SCHOOLS COMPETITION, entrants give Poetry Africa the consent to share the submission on Poetry’s Africa’s online platforms.
19. Closing date: Friday 8 October at 5pm