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Behind the Scenes at the Competition

For years we debated it, balked, retreated, re-visited, shelved and returned to it, until eventually we decided the time had come to launch our first competition. It’s been a long road: Magma is run democratically and each of us on the board has strong opinions and part of the work was the inevitable round the table discussion about what we planned to do and how we planned to do it. We’re never ones to shy away from a debate (it’s half the fun), and much argument was had as we discussed how to go about running the competition and how best we might reflect Magma’s personality and aspirations. Many of us have been on the other side of the fence, entering competitions rather than running them, and we tried to use our own experiences to help us design a competition that we ourselves would want to enter.

 

Our first major decision was that we wanted to run the competition in two sections. We knew that one section would be for poems of eighty lines and under, and then much debate ensued about the other section of the competition, until we finally came up with a concept we were happy with: the poem of ten lines or fewer. We believe it’s time to spotlight and reward the short poem for the gem that it is. There will be a first and second prize in this competition, but the third prize will be divided between eight poets. Reflecting the rotating editorship of Magma, we have appointed a committee of the magazine’s editors from the board who will be judging this together. The judging panel will be made up of the last five Magma board members to have edited the magazine. These are: Tim Kindberg, Jacqueline Saphra, Laurie Smith, Julia Bird and Clare Pollard.

 

Our first big break, though, was to obtain the services of George Szirtes, distinguished and multi award-winning poet, experienced judge, long-time friend to Magma Poetry, and all round good bloke, to judge the ‘eighty lines or under’ section. We’re so thrilled to have him on board.

 

Naturally these decisions were on the beginning of the process. There seems to be a huge amount of administration, whether it’s to do with the wording of the rules, the PO Box number, the agreement with the judge, the discussion of the leaflet design, or decisions around the online aspect. A small sub-committee has been beavering away at the nuts and bolts of the competition ever since we made the decision to run it, which was back in 2010. Emails have been flying between us fast and furious, punctuated by cappuccino-fuelled meetings in the café of the British Library.

 

As I write, we are putting together the final plans for our grand prize-giving event, and that means finalising the venue, booking poets to read, and reaching decisions as to how the event will be run in order to celebrate our winners, whoever they are (it could be you!), in true Magma style. We look forward to receiving your entries – we’ll be open for submissions from the 16th October.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Nice idea for a competition for entrants and judges alike. This is probably the wrong place to ask a boring but essential question – and sorry if the answer’s elsewhere and I’ve missed it – but presumably the title doesn’t count as one of the 10 lines?

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