CLiPPA '17 - On judging the shortlist

Hearty congratulations to all the shortlisted books (and their owners) in this year's CLiPPA.

I very much look forward to announcing the winner on 14th of July at The Poetry Show - which is being held at the Olivier Theatre this year!

Meanwhile, if you are a teacher reading this, do consider joining the CLiPPA school shadowing scheme for their free teaching resources and a chance for your pupils to perform on stage, alongside the shortlisted poets.

Here's a snippet from my article about the judging process from Scoop Magazine. You can read more about it in Scoop Magazine's online blog.

'Acting as Chair of Judges for this year’s CLiPPA has been an honour and a real pleasure – particularly because in my earlier writing days, I’d looked through previous CLiPPA shortlists (and those of its predecessor, the Signal Award) in my search for quality poetry for young people. My fellow judges were Sarah Crossan, Caleb Femi, Charlotte Hacking and Imogen Russell Williams...'

'...Judging was made a challenge by the spread of books that were submitted. The CLiPPA is open to published poetry books for a diverse and changing readership, from the pre-schooler to the early teen. How does one compare a poetic prose novel with early verse? A single-poet collection with an anthology? Like a poem, each book ultimately has to be measured against itself. Did it achieve its specific aim? Was there a satisfying match between subject matter, tone, form and flow? Did it work for the intended readership? Was it polished and did it gleam?'

The Judging Panel (Photo credit Michael Thorn)