Manchester gets into the festival spirit with poetry prize

Lindesay Irvine writing in The Guardian, Friday April 11, 2008

One of the biggest open competitions in English language poetry is being launched in Manchester, ahead of the city's literature festival this autumn.

The Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) hopes its £10,000 prize will attract the best writers from the UK and internationally, as well as developing the city's own literary culture. Project manager James Draper said: "The prize is based in Manchester, but looking outwards."

The Manchester poetry prize will be awarded to the best "portfolio" of three to five poems, adding up to no more than 120 lines. There is no restriction on subject matter, or entrants, although the work must be in English. It will be judged by TS Eliot prizewinner Carol Ann Duffy and fellow poets Gillian Clarke and Imtiaz Dharker.

The full story at The Guardian, go here..........