NEWS
Celebrating
National Poetry Day!
We celebrated National Poetry Day on 3rd October 2024 with a poem written by award-winning poet and one of our poetry competition judges, Jenny Mitchell.
“I was inspired to write this poem by the themes examined in the After the End project, namely who has the right to say when a crisis has ended. This resonated with me in particular because of my long-term creative determination to examine the legacies of British transatlantic enslavement.
The impact of that long-term abuse, both in the Caribbean and Britain, has undoubtedly had repercussions in terms of the financial (in)stability of the mass of Black people in the UK. Its impact can also be seen in terms of health, well-being, family dynamics, the criminal justice system and countless other ways.”
poetry
competition
The After the End poetry competition 2024 is open! Enter your poetry portfolios (up to 5 pieces per portfolio) by email to admin@ethox.ox.ac.uk by 3rd October, 2024 – National Poetry Day.
This poetry competition invites creative responses from poets that critically engage with ideas of time and temporality and the question of who gets to say that something has ended.
Work from poets at every stage of their writing careers is welcome.
Judges will read all the entries, which will be anonymised. The competition will recognise previously unpublished newcomers, established names, and emerging talents.
Poems can be on any issue related to themes of time, temporality and endings and in any style. Individual poems should be no longer than forty lines and can include previously published poems as long as they fit the brief. Scroll down the page for competition rules.
The After the End Poetry Competition offers to winners a first prize of £750, second and third place winners will be offered £125 each. All three winners will be published on the After the End website, and poems may be shared on media channels connected to the After the End project.
The winners will be announced on the After the End website on 1st November.
The After the End team are delighted to welcome to the judging panel award-winning poet Jenny Mitchell, literary agent Salma Begum, University of Exeter’s director of Liberal Arts Dr Michael Flexer and After the End researcher and Professor of Modern Literature and Medical Humanities Laura Salisbury.
After the End Poetry Workshop
Poetry, Time and the Question of Endings
Award-winning poet Jenny Mitchell will be hosting an exciting workshop in October 2024 to explore poetry, time and the question of endings with 14 participants from the University of Exeter.
The workshop asks: How do we write creatively about our individual and social connection to the past, the present and the future. Why might it be important to do this, and are there ways in which it might not only change us, but alter time itself? How do we write about experiences of the past and ongoing legacies of violence and harm?
Is it important to reckon with or challenge the often limited or skewed ideas about the past, present and future offered by the settings in which we find ourselves? What happens when we are told that something has ended but we experience it as continuing? How might we use poetry to make the endings we need in order to inhabit a different future?
What poems might we produce? What difference might we make?
Taking place 23rd October 2024 at the University of Exeter.
Poetry competition RUles
All entries must be formatted as a single-spaced word document or PDF.
Entries should be up to 5 pieces of poetry or a spoken word video performance
Each poetry piece should be no longer than 40 lines.
Spoken word video performance must be under 4 minutes total
Spoken Word submissions should be submitted in mp4 format via wetransfer.com to admin@ethox.ox.ac.uk. Please also send the poem in word or pdf in an email attachment to admin@ethox.ox.ac.uk.
All entries are judged anonymously, therefore, please do not include your name or any identifying information in the documents you upload. You should include this information only in the body of the email.
This is an international competition, and all entries must be in English.
All entries must be the entrant’s own original work, and must not have been generated, in whole or part, by a chatbot or other artificial intelligence.
The author must have the right to publish the poem on aftertheend.squarespace.com. The copyright remains with the author.
No corrections post-entry can be accepted.
The results of the competition will be published online and the decision of the judge(s) will be final.
No correspondence will be entered into regarding the judging process.
The closing date for entries is midnight (UK time) on 3rd October 2024. Winners will be notified by email four-six weeks after the closing dates.
Entries will not be eligible where the writer is part of the judging process, or anyone involved in the management/administration of the Prize, or a close family relative of any such person.
