Primary school pupils are being encouraged to let their imagination run wild by Jewish Literary Foundation, which has just launched this year’s children’s poetry competition on the theme of “adventure”.
The annual contest is open to children aged five to 11, and the winner, runner-up and the other finalists will have the chance to perform their poem at Jewish Book Week and have it published in a commemorative pamphlet for the festival. The winner and finalist will also each receive a certificate and book tokens.
Claudia Reubenstein, chief executive and creative director of the JLF, said: “At the Jewish Literary Foundation, we want to encourage a love of reading and writing from an early age. We hope this competition will give young poets the chance to be creative, and to discover the pleasure of writing poetry.
“Above all, we hope it will spark imaginations and perhaps begin a lifelong relationship with poetry. I am very much looking forward to reading the poems the children send us.”
Poems mustn’t be longer than 200 words, and the use of AI will lead to disqualification from the competition. Each participant is only entitled to send in one entry.
Twelve finalists - two from Year 1 to Year 6 will - be selected, and from these, the overall winner and overall runner-up will be picked.
Judges will be looking for originality, creativity and relevance to the topic of adventure.
Award-winning author of children’s and young adult books Keren David, who is the Jewish Chronicle’s managing editor, will be joining employees and trustees of the JLF on the judging panel.
She said: “Adventure is a great theme because it could spark story ideas or children could think about what the word means to them. An adventure can be something epic and exciting or much smaller and simpler. They are completely free to interpret it as they wish and I'm looking forward to reading their poems.”
The children’s poetry prize builds on the Jewish Literary Foundation's wider commitment to developing new writing talent across all ages, said the organisation.
Its JLF-Genesis Emerging Writers programme is now entering its sixth year, having supported more than 50 writers across fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
They also run Jewish Book Week, the Jewish Playwrights Programme, the Freudenheim Translation Prize, the Risa Domb/Porjes Prize for Hebrew/English translation, and the Jewish Children's Book Awards.
The closing date is Friday December 18 at 12pm
For further details and to enter, go to jewishliteraryfoundation.co.uk/awards-prizes/jewish-childrens-poetry-competition or click here
The JC is the exclusive media partner of the competition
Find out more about Jewish Book Week 2027 festival and the Jewish Literary Foundation here.
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