Riddell and Bloom among judges for 20th CLiPPA

Judges for the Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award (CLiPPA) have been revealed, as the prize celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Former Waterstones Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell will chair the 2023 judging panel. He will be joined by last year’s winner, Valerie Bloom, as well as the writer Indigo Williams. Jay Bhadricha, head of programmes at the Forward Arts Foundation, and Charlotte Hacking, learning and programmes director at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), will also be judging. 

Riddell said: “I believe that this is a golden age of children’s poetry. New voices, exciting imprints, innovative formats and, above all, accessibility have led to an explosion of creativity. I am delighted to chair the judges of this year’s CLIPPA and immerse myself in the very best books of poetry for children. The young have an instinctive grasp of poetry, something CLPE understands and has done so much to nurture and promote. A love of poetry acquired at an early age leads to literacy, creativity and mental wellbeing. Long live the CLiPPA!"

Established in 2003, the CLiPPA highlights the best new poetry for children. The winner will receive a £1,000 cash prize, with past recipients including Michael Rosen, John Agard, Jackie Kay and current Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho. 

The CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme will also be rolled out in conjunction with the awards. The initiative invites schoolchildren to perform a poem from one of the shortlisted collections, videos of which are then submitted to a CLPE judging panel. The winning schools will ultimately be invited to perform live at the award ceremony.  

Louise Johns-Shepherd, chief executive of the CLPE, said: “We are delighted to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the CLiPPA with another superb panel of expert judges. Chris Riddell is right; this is indeed a golden age of children’s poetry. In 2015, as a CLiPPA judge, Roger McGough lamented how few submissions there were, and how few publishers were producing poetry books for children. This year, for the second year running, we received 30 submissions for the CLiPPA and from 15 different publishers. It’s exhilarating to see the impact that the CLiPPA has had. Now we can’t wait to see which collections our judges shortlist, and then to share them with children and their teachers, sparking connections with poets and poetry that will last lifetimes.”

The winner of the CLiPPA 2023 will be announced live at the National Theatre on Monday, 10th July 2023. During the event, shortlisted poets, plus the Shadowing Scheme winners, will take to the stage to perform.