For the second year, Airdrie Public Library (APL) will provide an opportunity for local poets to share their work and possibly win a prize.
According to Director Pamela Medland, Airdrie writers have until June 30 to submit entries for APL's second annual Poetry in Motion contest. Though writing poetry can be a solitary venture, Medland encourages Airdrie’s budding poets to share their words with the world.
“Poetry is about sharing language, emotion, wonder and joy with others,” she said. “Really, the basis of poetry is sharing the joy of language and how much it can contribute to the human experience.”
Contestants can submit in one of two categories - the Youth category, for poets aged 13 to 17, and the Open category for everyone else. Up to three poems can be entered in the contest, and while the topic, style and format of each poem is flexible, Medland said the length of each piece must be 10 lines or fewer, as the winning and short-listed poems will be displayed on Airdrie Transit’s ICE buses in September.
“That’s why we call it Poetry in Motion, because we have the opportunity to publish the poems on the buses,” she said. “We love the idea of reaching out to the community and making poetry widely available to everyone.”
The contest is limited to APL card holders, Medland said, adding library cards are free and easy to apply for.
“It is a contest for APL members, which means you’re not competing with poets from all over the world, which can often happen in poetry contests these days,” she said.
Entry forms for the contest are available at airdriepubliclibrary.ca by clicking on the "Virtual programs and events" tab and following the links.
According to Medland, the library's inaugural contest received 75 submissions. Radwan Matar and Sholley Poweel won in the Youth and Open categories, respectively.
She added APL is anticipating a similar number of entries this year.
“We didn’t know how it would go in the first year, but we had support from the City of Airdrie's Community Development [department], who provided us with two iPads for the winners of the Open category and the Youth category, so that's a great incentive,” she said.
This year, poet and freelance writer Vivian Hansen judge the contest. Hansen was the 2020 winner of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Golden Pen Award, which is presented to acknowledge lifetime contributions to writing in the province. Her books include A Bitter Mood of Clouds and Leylines of My Flesh.
In evaluating each entry, Hansen said she'll look for writers that focus on using concise and “fresh” language. She cited the works of William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound as examples of this type of poetry.
“I'm not looking for people to reproduce those classical poets, but they do deal in fresh language and very concise images,” she said.
Hansen added that poets “bear witness to our times,” and suggested contestants have the opportunity to express their thoughts on recent events like the COVID-19 pandemic or the June 13 hail storm.
“The way a 50-year-old bears witness to all of this opposed to how a 19-year-old does are possibly two different things,” she said.
The winner in each category will be announced Sept. 1.
In addition to the Poetry in Motion contest, Medland said APL is hosting a virtual poetry open mic night on Zoom June 20 from 7 to 9 p.m. Local writers of all ages are invited to share their poems, with each participant offered five minutes to recite their work.
According to Medland, Hansen will take part in the open mic night as the event’s featured reader.
Registration is necessary and log-in information for the Zoom meeting will be provided to participants closer to the date.
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
