Poetry & Prose Writing Challenge

Poetry and Prose Writing Challenge - Looking after the Planet - For All Age Groups

Humanity is at a crossroads in how we address the Climate Emergency and Loss of Biodiversity faced by the Planet. This is the world young people will be inheriting, so what would you like to say about these concerns and what might you be able to do to help look after the Planet? Great Big Green Week Shaftesbury is running an online Poetry and Prose Writing Challenge until the end of the 18th June 2023, and you are invited to write a poem, short story or other piece of writing to express your thoughts and feelings about those concerns. There are three age group categories for entry: up to 12 years, 13 – 17 year olds, and over 18s including an invitation for older people to reflect on the changes in the climate and the natural world witnessed and experienced during their lifetimes and under the idea of When I was a Child.

Your work can be displayed on the Great Big Green Week Shaftesbury website (link below) and you may enter as many items as you like; if you are writing a prose piece, please limit it to 600 words per piece. You may wish to record your pieces in an audio version and attach this to your submission. Send everything to (Chris@greatbiggreenweekshaftesbury.org) by the end of Sunday 18th June 2023.

Numerous events are being hosted by Great Big Green Week Shaftesbury throughout the week: these raise awareness of the many alarms being identified by Climate Change and the threat to all forms of life on Earth, but they also celebrate the many aspects of the natural world which provide wonder, awe and beauty as well as what we need for our survival. Please visit as many of these as you can, reflect on what you already know about and you may see with new eyes more about how they are all connected. Use these opportunities to fire your imagination for your writing.

This is the context for a morning devoted to the Poetry and Prose Writing Challenge in the Garden Room of Shaftesbury's Gold Hill Museum on Saturday 17th June 2023 from 1030 am – 12.30 pm. Here you might like to meet with other writers and would-be writers and poets to exchange ideas, share what you may already have written, and glean more inspiration from additional information amongst the displays of material in the room. There is access to the museum garden itself but also further afield on to Park Walk, down Stony Path or Pine Walk, or across to Castle Hill Green off Bimport. This event provides the opportunity for you to gather together your reflections on the week's events, what might have been new to you and where you will have met others who care as much as you do about the challenges which confront humanity. If you wish to have your work displayed in the People's Exhibition in the Council Chamber of the Town Hall in Shaftesbury, as well as on the Great Big Green Week Shaftesbury website, please print your details (name, address and age group) on the back of your work and it will be returned to you after the event.

At all these events, you might find others happy to join you in future activities which raise awareness and carry on the work of the many people in the town who are already involved in a variety of exciting environmental projects. Explore this website for more on these.

There are some suggestions and writing tips on the Forum here if you need some ideas to get you going.

Event hosted by Planet Shaftesbury at Gold Hill Museum.

This is just one of many events and activities around Shaftesbury during Great Big Green Week (10-18th June).

Find out about other events at greatbiggreenweekshaftesbury.org