Could you be the next young poetry laureate?

Aspiring young poets are being given free entry into this year’s Young Poets Of The Year book.

“This annual book has been published for several years now and aims to encourage under-19s to express themselves through poetry,” said Brent Whittam of United Press, which organises the competition.

This annual competition is now in its third year. “Our aim is to encourage young people to get more involved in poetry and all the poets published in the book get five free copies. This includes photos and profiles of each one, plus several of their poems,” said Brent.

Telephone 0844 800 9177 for details or send a photo, profile (including date of birth) and ten poems to Young Poets of The Year, United Press, Admail 3735, London EC1B 1JB. You can see more information at http://www.unitedpress.co.uk/young-poets-competitions   or   http://www.youngpoets.co.uk

“We have long encouraged young people to get involved in poetry,” said Brent. “For over a decade we have produced free books featuring poetry written by children at various schools. By donating a large number of copies (50 or more) of these books to each school we have not only helped them to raise valuable funds but we’ve also given their pupils an outlet which has encouraged them to get involved in poetry. Throughout this period we’ve also included a lot of young people in anthologies along with adult poets. Every poet under-16 has been given a free copy of any anthology which includes their work. This has helped a lot of young poets take those first vital steps towards getting recognised for their talents.”

“Young Poets Of The Year is the result and also the extension of that process,” said Brent. “We decided to produce this book to help each our Young Poet Laureates gain further recognition for their talents and help them to progress in their artistic achievement.”