The closing date for entries in the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Awards is fast approaching.
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The national competition will close on June 30, with the awards event to be held on August 31.
When project officer Brittany Riley chatted to the NVI on Tuesday, she said entry numbers are “looking pretty healthy”.
“There are submissions coming in every day,” she said.
Entries are being sent in from Tasmania, Western Australia and NSW, to name a few.
“They’re coming from everywhere, which is incredible.”
Ms Riley said a lot schools and parents have registered for the competition but are yet to submit their entries.
Entries from the Gunnedah shire, however, are “pretty slim”. Currently, only two schools have registered to submit poetry but Ms Riley is hoping the schools will get behind the competition.
“Only Gunnedah South Public School and Boggabri Public School have registered; I’d like to get more,” she said.
Ms Riley recently facilitated a poetry workshop at Gunnedah South with Larni Christie and said she had a “great time”.
“We spent the day getting some poetry written so hopefully they submit,” Ms Riley said.
“I’d never done a workshop before… It’s given me a confidence boost now.”
Ms Riley said she is currently in talks with Gunnedah Shire Council’s youth development officer Sewa Emojong to run poetry workshops in the school holidays.
“I’m doing a couple of poetry workshops in the school holidays, which wouldn’t be in time for this year’s competition but hopefully it will encourage them to apply next year,” she said.
“The end goal is for Gunnedah to win this national competition.
“It would be really special for a Gunnedah student to win it out of all the schools Australia-wide.”
To find out more, contact Brittany Riley on 6742 1200 or email dorotheamackellar@bigpond.com