Each year the CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award) celebrates the best new published poetry for children. Ahead of the announcement of this year’s winner at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday 8 July, one of the judges – NPD ambassador Nikita Gill – judge for this year reflects on the importance of the…

The shortlist for the 2022 CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award) will be announced very soon on Wednesday 4 May at Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University. Ahead of that announcement, chair of the judges, Philip Gross shares his reflections on what the shortlist says about contemporary poetry for children here (without giving the shortlist…

Headteacher Sonia Thompson describes what taking part in the Shadowing Scheme for the CLiPPA meant to her school and its pupils. I first heard about CLPE some years ago and signed up for the CLPE newsletter. The CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award) caught my eye, because at St Matthew’s we love teaching poetry, and we…

This is an extract from ‘Keep Ithaka Always in Your Mind: On the Journey and the Value of Poetry’ by Jacqueline Saphra which appears in Why I Write Poetry edited by Ian Humphreys (Nine Arches Press). Jacqueline describes the value of poetry and how it provides us with a kind of nourishment. The value of poetry to…

My National Poetry Day villanelle, ‘May 8th, 2020’ takes its title from the 75th Anniversary of World War Two’s Victory in Europe Day. In my poem, I have depicted Britain as a nation of love and harm. This is a duality that is felt by myself and many other Britons of Colour. This emotional tension…

In 2019, we joined forces to challenge stereotypes and celebrate the delights of the different regions that together compose the United Kingdom.   BBC Local Radio stations, prompted by National Poetry Day’s Truth theme, invited listeners to tackle lazy cliches by sharing truths about the places where they live, the kinds of truths that deserve…