Poetry Contest

From The British Council

British Council in collaboration with the Poetry Society (India) has been organising All India Poetry competitions since 1988 with the view to promote poetry in English by Indian writers and to discover promising new poets in this country.

Some of the winners of this prestigious competition have been Vijay Nambisan, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Shampa Sinha, Anju Makhija, Tabish Khair, Rajlukshmee Debee Bhattacharya, Ranjit Hoskote, K Sri Lata and Shahnaz Habib.

Over the years the competition has been judged by well-known British and Indian poets and writers such as Alan Brownjohn, Anthony Thwaite, Lawrance Sail, Michael Hulse, Peter Forbes, Jo Shapcott, Stephen Knight, Vicki Fever, Paul Farley, Nissim Ezekiel, Shiv K Kumar, J P Das, Keshav Malik, H K Kaul, Sitakant Mahapatra, Sujatha Mathai, Imtiaz Dharkar, K. Satchitanandan, K N Daruwalla and Eunice de Souza.

The tenth All India Poetry Competition will be organised early next year. All the short listed entries will be published. The best entry will receive a sum of Rs 25000 and the second best Rs 5000.

The competition is open to all individuals who are 18 years and above. All entries must be in the English language. These can be original compositions or translated from Indian languages into English.

All entries should be sent to the All-India Poetry Competitition 2005, The Poetry Society (India), L-67A, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi 110017. The closing date for entries is 30 September 2005.

Entry forms are available at British Council office and the British Libraries. These can also be downloaded from www.britishcouncil.org.in or www.indianpoetry.org

For more details contact Dr H K Kaul, Secretary General, Poetry Society of India at hkkaul@delnet.ren.nic.in