Press Release 19th January 2017
Submissions open for the CLPE Children’s Poetry Award - CLiPPA 2017
Announcement of Chair, judges and venue for the 2017 Award
Publishers are invited to submit books of children’s poetry published in 2016 for CLiPPA 2017.
Established in 2003, 2017 is the 15th anniversary of the annual Poetry Award, the only award for published poetry for
children in the UK. It encourages and celebrates outstanding new children’s poetry and is presented annually for a
book of poetry by a single poet or collections of children’s poetry published in the preceding year.
The winner will join an incredible past line up of winners from the world of children’s poetry including Sarah Crossan,
Michael Rosen, Joseph Coelho, Roger McGough, George Szirtes, Carol Ann Duffy, Philip Gross and John Agard.
Chair and Judges
This year the Chair of the Judging panel will be poet Rachel Rooney.
Rachel is joined by a range of poetry experts who share a passion for poetry and its place in children’s developing
literacy.
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Sarah Crossan - Poet and CLiPPA 2016 joint winner for One
Caleb Femi – Poet and the Young People's Laureate for London
Charlotte Hacking - CLPE Learning Programme Leader
Imogen Russell Williams - Children’s book critic and editorial consultant
Rachel Rooney, Chair of Judges said:
‘I am thrilled to be the Chair of Judges for CLiPPA 2017. Each year, this award puts children's poetry centre-stage and
brings adults and children together to highlight the best that contemporary children's poetry has to offer. I'm very
much looking forward to reading the entries submitted and celebrating with the poets and shadowing schools at the
Poetry Show in July.’
Louise Johns-Shepherd, Chief Executive, CLPE said:
‘In this 15th anniversary year of our poetry award we are delighted to have such a distinguished panel of expert
judges led by Rachel and are looking forward to highlighting the very best of children’s poetry in every way we can.
We are looking forward to involving children and teachers from across the country in our celebrations. We want
everyone to know what an important branch of literature children’s poetry is and how integral it is to children’s
developing literacy. ‘
The shortlist will be announced in early May and the winner revealed at the CLiPPA 2017 Poetry Show in July. As part
of the special 15th anniversary celebrations, this year’s CLiPPA Poetry Show will take place in the 1,000+-seater
Olivier Theatre at the National Theatre, London.
Shadowing Scheme
As part of their commitment to support teachers to teach poetry in an exciting and creative way, CLPE will create
teaching materials for all shortlisted books. This will include videos of the shortlisted poets which will be accessible
on CLPE’s free Poetryline site. Schools can follow the award by taking part in a shadowing scheme. Shadowing
schools will have the opportunity to take part in a competition to win copies of all the shortlisted books and to
attend or perform at the CLiPPA 2017 Poetry Show.
End
Notes to editors:
For general enquiries regarding the Award please email Fatim Kesvani [email protected]
For enquiries regarding CLiPPA 2017 submission process please contact Ann Lazim [email protected]
The Process for Submissions
Publishers are asked to send six hard copies of the book they are submitting to: Ann Lazim, Literature and Library
Development Manager, Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, 44 Webber Street, London SE1 8QW by 20th
February. On announcement of the shortlist publishers will be asked to send further copies of the books to be used
as prizes for schools taking part in at the national shadowing scheme.
About Rachel Rooney
Rachel Rooney trained and worked as a special needs teacher and now lives in Brighton. Her first collection of poems
for children, The Language of Cat, was the 2011 Poetry Book Society children’s choice. It also won the 2012 CLPE
Poetry Award (CLiPPA) and was longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. Her next collection, My Life as a Goldfish,
was shortlisted for CLiPPA 2015. Rachel travels the country performing her poems at festivals and via The Children’s
Bookshow along with creative workshops in schools. Rachel will also be a judge for the Betjeman Poetry Prize 2017,
a poetry prize for young poets age 10-13.
See videos of Rachel Rooney performing on Poetryline
About The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and the CLPE Poetry Award CLiPPA
For more information about the Poetry Award, Poetry Award winners and the Shadowing Scheme visit
https://www.clpe.org.uk/poetry/clippa-centre-literacy-primary-poetry-award
CLPE is an independent charity working with schools and teachers to ensure excellent literacy teaching through the
use of good quality children’s literature in all learning. CLPE works with schools nationally and internationally
providing literacy training, courses and conferences. The Centre has a renowned research history and developed the
well known Power of Reading project to raise reading standards and promote the creative teaching of literacy. CLPE
houses a reference library of thousands of children’s books and is also the National Poetry Centre for Primary
Schools. All resources created for CLiPPA 2017 will be available for free on CLPE’s poetry resource site, Poetryline.
For more information about the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, please visit our website www.clpe.org.uk
or contact [email protected] .
For sponsorship enquiries for the Poetry Award 2017 or in the future please contact [email protected] for a
sponsorship pack.
www.clpe.org.uk