Headingley LitFest: poetry competition

Monday, 27 June 2011

Support the LIPPfest!

Readers of this blog are sure to be interested in the LIPPfest so here's information and dates for your diaries:

The Leeds Independent Presses Poetry Festival (LIPPfest) 2011 kicks off on 24 September at the Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds with a programme of readings from twenty-one poets, six workshops, symposiums and publishing talks. An independent presses bookfair will give people the chance to browse and purchase literature from a range of literature not stocked on the shelves of your average bookshop.

LIPPfest 2011 Poetry competition

Here you can download details, rules and entry form for the inaugural LIPPfest poetry competition. The competition will open for entries on April 12th 2011. Entries close on July 14th 2011. Winners will be announced at a special event at the festival on September 24th.

(Click this Link to download PDF)

This year’s judges are Pat Borthwick and Mike Barlow.

Prizes
• 1st Prize £ 250.00
• 2nd Prize £ 150.00
• 3rd Prize £ 100.00
• The Leeds Prize £ 50.00
• All prize/award winners will receive a poetry
book from the LIPPfest book fair.

All prize winners will also have an opportunity to read at the festival and will be invited to submit their entry for inclusion in the LIPPfest’s anthology of poetry. The competition is a great way to support the festival and help us to promote the poets and poetry of independent presses.

Any money raised will go into putting on further events and developing new ways to take poetry out to new audiences. See entry form for full details.

LITERARY HEADINGLEY

Headingley is just the place for it! Don't expect a big circus with marquees, though: we're not at that stage yet. We're all volunteers as well.

Our venues include the HEART Centre on Bennett Road, the New Headingley Club on St Michael's Road, friendly cafés, historic local cinemas, Headingley Library, people's houses and the historic Leeds Library in Commercial Street, city centre.

Headingley's Literary Links

Headingley has strong connections with many writers:

Arthur Ransome was born in Headingley, J R R Tolkien lived at 5 Holly Bank and also at 2 Darnley Road, West Park when he was reader in English Language at the University of Leeds 1920 - 25, Alan Bennett lived over a butcher's shop opposite the Three Horseshoes, now Royale Dry Cleaners.

Lucy Newlyn has published poetry about her early life in Headingley, George Orwell stayed at 21 Estcourt Avenue with his sister Marjorie and her husband Humphrey 'Humpy' Dakin (with whom he visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth), T S Eliot used to visit his mother-in-law in Weetwood Lane, William Fryer Harvey was brought up in Spring Bank, Trevor Griffiths lived just off Victoria Road on Winstanley Terrace, Jon Silkin's first office of STAND magazine was his flat at 144 Otley Road, Sir Geoffrey Hill lived in Shire Oak Road, Peter Redgrove lived in Headingley between 1962 and 1965 when he was Gregory Fellow of Poetry at the University of Leeds, and playwright Kay Mellor still lives near The Hollies in Far Headingley.

Wilson Barrett, the charismatic first manager of the Grand Theatre, Leeds (a prolific playwright as well), lived in Beech Grove Terrace, Woodhouse in the 1870s. His house was a meeting place for many writers, artists and visitors to Leeds - such as W. S. Gilbert, George Grossmith and Atkinson Grimshaw.

Headingley LitFest 2020 was the thirteenth. The fourteenth will take place from March 2021 and will be adapted to the rules of the Covid pandemic. We are now a proud part of the annual Leeds Lit Fest.