Jack Clemo Poetry Competition

The Jack Clemo Poetry competition did not run in 2012. In 2012 ACG ran a Playwriting Competition.

The Jack Clemo Poetry competition will be running again this year, 2013. Details will be announced soon. The competition administrator is Tony Jasper who will also be opening a conference on Jack Clemo called Kindling The Scarp, 31st May-1st June at Wheal Martin, Cornwall.

The primary aim of the poetry competition is to encourage poetry per se. We wish to see Christians writing better and better poetry and that poetry should not exist in some kind of ghetto land, but it should be out there in the forefront of artistic forms roaring away and making its presence felt.

This is the sculpture, made from Cornish stone, and is held by the winner of the competition for a year.

In addition to holding the sculpture for one year, the winner receives a cheque for £100.

There is a monetary reward of £75 for the second and £50 for the third. The winning entries are published on this website and can be seen here.

The Judges in 2011

The competition was administered by Tony Jasper. The judges in the past have included some well known writers and editors, as well as several with publishing contacts. They have included Stewart Henderson, one of the UK’s leading poets and known especially for his long running BBC Radio 4 series of ’Questions. Questions.’ and Adrian Plass, best selling author. Judges for 2011 were Bishop Bill Ind, Christine Smith, Director of Canterbury Press, Isabel Hariades, formerly of Phaidon Press, Kenneth Pickering, and Simon Baynes, Association of Christian Writers.

The Previous Award Occasion

The awards were presented by Lady Mary Holborow DCVO, JP, Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall and was held on 27 October 2011, at the Society of Authors, 84 Drayton Gardens, London SW10.

Poems should not have been previously published.

Copyright of the poems will remain with the writer but ACG reserves publication rights of the prize-winning entries.