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Calling all UCL student poets: what’s your response to the Covid-19 crisis?

16 June 2020

Apply for this year's Yale-UCL poetry competitions by 31 July for the chance to win a £1000 prize.

Writing

The organisers of the Yale-UCL Poetry Prizes recognise that many students – in the US, the UK, and around the world – will be involved in the continuing struggle against racism that has gained new impetus since George Floyd’s death, both practically and in terms of emotional attention.  As a result, we have decided to extend the deadline for submissions until Friday 31 July.  Additionally, for the open competition where poems need to focus on a medical or public-health related these, we will welcome poems that address the structural effects of racism in healthcare and health outcomes or the inequalities that the Coronavirus pandemic has revealed and reinforced.

Yale and UCL have announced a poetry competition for all their students, to run alongside the annual joint poetry competition open to their medical students only. 

The poetry competition for medical students was born out of the Yale-UCL Collaborative that fosters partnerships in the biomedical sciences and engineering, and has influenced the study of social sciences, humanities, law and architecture at the two universities as well as facilitating student and staff exchanges.

Now in its tenth year, the poetry competition has given medical students at the two universities the opportunity to address creatively their particular experiences – and to produce some extraordinary poetry. 

This year the Coronavirus outbreak has prompted the organisers to adjust the poetry competition, extending it to all Yale and UCL students. 

There will be two competitions:

  1. An ‘open’ competition for all Yale and UCL students for the best poem that addresses a recognizably medical or public-health related theme. One prize of £1000 is up for grabs.
  2. A ‘closed’ competition for Yale and UCL students of medicine and allied disciplines, with a chance to win a prize of £1000.

The prizes are offered thanks to the generosity of an external donor.

Rules

1. The ‘Open’ competition for all Yale and UCL students:

  • All Yale and UCL students, undergraduate and postgraduate, registered on any programme of study in the academic year 2019-20, are eligible to enter.

  • Each entrant may enter one poem.

  • The poem must be on a recognizably medical or public-health related theme.

  • The poem may be in any poetic form, including the prose poem, but should be no longer than one page, single-spaced and in Times New Roman, 12 point.

  • Entries must be sent as a Word document to yaleuclpoetrycomp@gmail.com, no later than 11pm BST, 31 July 2020.

  • The winning entrant will receive a prize of £1000.

2. The ‘Closed’ competition for Yale and UCL students of medicine and allied disciplines:         

  • Yale and UCL students, undergraduate and postgraduate, registered on a programme of study in medicine or an allied discipline in the academic year 2019-20, are eligible to enter. This includes physician associates, nurse practitioners, students of public health, pharmacy, social work, and other health-related disciplines.

  • Each entrant may enter up to three poems which should be sent as a single Word document.

  • Poems may be on any topic.

  • The poems may be in any poetic form, including prose poems, but each one should be no longer than one page, single-spaced and in Times New Roman, 12 point.

  • Entries must be sent to yaleuclpoetrycomp@gmail.com, no later than 11pm BST, 31 July 2020.

  • Entrants should indicate their programme of study and that they wish their poem(s) to be considered for the ‘closed’ competition

  • The winning entrant will receive a prize of £1000.

Students of medicine and allied disciplines may enter both competitions but must do so separately – a single submission can only be considered for one competition.  Entrants must indicate clearly for which competition they wish their entry to be considered.  For any queries, please contact yaleuclpoetrycomp@gmail.com.