Call For Staffordshire Poets for Poet Laureate Charity Anthology

Budding poets are being sought to contribute to a unique anthology to celebrate St Giles Hospice’s 35^th anniversary this year.

The Hospice has teamed up with Staffordshire Poet Laureate Emily Rose Galvin to put together a book of poems which will be sold in aid of the hospice.

St Giles Community Engagement Manager Ian Leech said the themes for the anthology were inspired by cards used in Dying Matters Week. 

“Every year we go out into the community and ask people to fill in cards with a prompt on them, from picking their funeral song to what makes life worthwhile,” he said.

“It’s a great way of opening up discussions about life, death and everything in between and we’ve had some really diverse and occasionally challenging or unexpected answers.

“It seems the perfect starting point for the anthology, particularly as it reflects the fact that hospice care is about living life to full for as long as possible, not just about the end of life.”

The collaboration came about after Poet Laureate Emily’s family member was cared for at St Giles and she wanted to do something to support the hospice.

“As part of my time as Poet Laureate I wanted to raise the profile of poetry in the area and to help a great cause at the same time,” she said.

“The themes for the anthology are really inspirational from ‘What scares me’ to ‘Before I die I want to’ giving people loads of scope to explore all kinds of subjects, from the very happy to the very sad.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing the range of poems that are sent in and selecting the final set of poems which will be used in the book.”

Submissions are new open until February 18^th 2018 via https://www.fishbowlpublishing.com/submissions/

Submission guidelines:

-Applicants are allowed to submit a maximum of 2 poems based on whichever of the themes they choose.

-Poems should be no longer than 40 lines (Any poems over 40 lines may be instantly disqualified or subject to editing).

The anthology will be published in May and will be available to buy through St Giles shops as well as on Amazon.