books review

The Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition Poetry Prize

Edinburgh International Book Festival

The point of a poetry competition is perhaps to give poets a reason to write and to celebrate new poetry. Unfortunately, this event was so taken up with the judges reading their own material that ten minutes before the end, prizes had still not been presented and winning poems not read. As a result, only Kate Miller's first prize entry - 'After the Ban' - was performed, a lament on the redundancy of certain inanimate objects since the smoking ban. Also notable was judge Donny O Rourke's humorous, thought provoking and musical poetry, which comments on xenophobia, and Jeremy Paxman's recent snub of Robert Burns. As this is the competition's first year, perhaps the second will be better organised.

ScottishPower Studio Theatre, 17 Aug, 7.00pm (8.00pm), £9.00 (£7.00)

published: Aug-2008

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