DiVerse was a new idea for a competition developed last year by Northamptonshire Libraries and Information Service to celebrate the diversity that exists in our local communities. We wanted people to take their inspiration for a poem directly from their doorsteps: to look outside and write about what they saw on their street, in their community or in the environment around them.
It’s always a challenge to initiate a new writing competition, especially for poetry. We wanted to encourage entries from people from all backgrounds and walks of life. We developed an adult competition and two children’s categories 7-11 and 12-16 to encourage as many people as possible to submit an entry.
The response over the past six months has been overwhelming. In total we’ve had over 200 entries to the competition, many local, others from all over Britain. The topics and styles have been incredibly diverse, technically and in their themes, and we’re really pleased to see that poetry is most definitely alive out there in our community!
Click on the link below to view the full list of winners and highly commended entries in the 2006 competition:
Click on the following files to read the winning entries from each of the competition categories: