The Charles Causley Trust, based in Launceston, are preparing for a year full of creative activity in 2023 that will mark 20 years since the passing of the late Cornish poet Charles Causley. Save the dates June 30 to July 2 for their annual Arts and Literature Festival and follow them @causleytrust for updates on their new events and projects. In the meantime, read on for what they are offering before the end of 2022. 

Looking to showcase your creative writing?

If you’re an aspiring or established writer, you may wish to enter the Trust’s International Poetry Competition, judged this year by award-winning writer Seán Hewitt. You can submit poems under any theme, with a maximum line limit of 40 lines. Entry costs £7.50 with subsequent entries costing £5.50. The closing date for the competition is midnight on Sunday 1st January 2023 and the winners will be announced in April/May 2023. Be sure to carefully read their Rules of Entry carefully before entering. ⁠

Make this Christmas a Causley Christmas ...

If you’re looking for festive season plans, the Trust have launched their ‘Causley Christmas’ event on Friday,December 9. An evening full of festive cheer with Charles Causley at its heart, folksinger Jim Causley, local schools, and Charles’ friends, neighbours and former pupils will celebrate Causley’s legacy and the Christmas season, through a series of performances. The event will take place at St Thomas’s Church in Launceston and tickets cost £5. You can secure yours via causleytrust.org/what’son or at Launceston Visitor Information Centre.

A creative start to 2023 …

Renew your creativity in the new year by joining renowned poets Fiona Benson and Katrina Naomi at the Causley Trust’s second residential workshop weekend, February 3 to , 2023. Held at the beautiful Trevadlock Manor in the Cornish countryside, develop your poetry in a stunning setting, with opportunities for 1 to 1 mentoring. Katrina, who recently worked with the Trust at their 2022 Festival of Arts and Literature, is the winner of the 2021 Keats-Shelley Prize and her most recent collection, Wild Persistence, received an Authors’ Foundation award from the Society of Authors. Her poetry has appeared on Poems on the Underground and BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. Fiona Benson won the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2019 for Vertigo & Ghost and her first collection Bright Travellers (Cape, 2014) won the 2015 Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for a First Full Collection and the 2015 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her latest collection has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot award. All enquiries for the weekend must be made by email to [email protected]

To learn more about the Causley Trust and to get involved with their events, see causleytrust.org