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Ginkgo Ecopoetry Prize returns
The biggest international poetry prize for ecological, environmental and climate-concerned poetry, the Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry, has returned for a second year.
The award is calling for entries from poets around the world competing to win £5,000 (first prize), £2,000 (2nd prize) or £1,000 (3rd prize).
Organised by UK provider of poetry education, the Poetry School, and judged by award-winning Mexican writer and former president of International PEN Homero Aridjis, alongside poet Jen Hadfield, the award aims "to highlight the role poetry can play in provoking awareness, insight and concern for the ecological imperatives of our time," according to organisers.
In addition, the Environmental Defenders Prize – a new subsidiary prize worth £500 – will announce a winner for the best poem addressing the theme of environmental activism, in partnership with Global Witness in a bid to raise awareness of their Environmental Activists Campaign. The winners of both prizes will have the opportunity to take part in a unique writing residency supported by the Cambridge Writing Retreat.
The return of the Ginkgo Prize follows the recent protests of environmental activists Extinction Rebellion, while earlier this year school children all around the UK, inspired by Greta Thunberg, went on strike in protest against the government’s inaction over climate change.
“We are careening down a steep slope of extinctions,” Aridjis said. “[We are] replacing the sea’s inhabitants with plastic bits, razing forests, wreaking havoc on the climate, choking on poisoned air, fouling our water. The emergency is global, but we’re playing Russian roulette with a planet now in intensive care.”
The prize is now in its second year funded by the Edward Goldsmith Foundation, established in 2018 to commemorate the life and work of environmentalist Teddy Goldsmith.
Prize applications close on 22nd September.
