THE search is on to find this year’s top young Hampshire poet.

The Hampshire Young Poets Competition, run in partnership with The Winchester Poetry Festival, will see young people across the county asked to write a poem of no more than 14 lines about what home means to them, whether as a place or found in the people who matter most.

Entries to the competition, run by Hampshire Cultural Trust, are open to young people who live or study in Hampshire in three different age categories: 4-7, 8-11 and 12-16 years.

The competition is free to enter and there will be National Book Token prizes for the winners, matched with P&G Wells book tokens for the schools of the winning entrants to spend on poetry books.

The closing date for entries is midnight on Monday, July 31 and the poems will be judged by Hampshire Poet, Nazneen Ahmed Pathak.

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Nazneen said: “Home is a rich and wonderful theme for poetry and it's a brilliant focus for this year's Young Poets competition. Whether it's thinking about our own homes, families, and the places that matter to us, or making people feel at home in our community, or thinking about those who don't have homes, or those who have to move from one place to another to make a new home - there's just so much inspiration in this theme for poetry that matters.

“I can't wait to read all the contributions.”

The winners in each age category will be contacted by email or post and officially announced at an awards ceremony at The Arc in Winchester on Saturday, October 14.

Details of how to enter and submission guidelines can be found at hampshireculture.org.uk/hantsyoungpoets23.