THE Charles Causley Trust organised a ‘Poetry Slam’ on the evening of Thursday, October 3, for National Poetry Day and in conjunction with the ‘Fun Palaces’ events taking place across Launceston that week.

The evening, held in Launceston Town Hall, saw a number of local poets and enthusiasts take to the stage to recite their own poetry to an audience, in the hopes of winning a prize. Participants performed their poetry, inspired by loved ones, nature, politics and more.

MC for the evening was the Charles Causley Trust’s new writer-in-residence Lou Sarabadzic, who arrived for her three-month residency at Cyprus Well, Launceston, on Tuesday, October 1.

Lou said: “We were really happy with how it went. We had eleven people perform in front of three judges who were picked from the audience. It was a lovely event.”

Lou, a French writer who moved to the UK ten years ago, continued: “I’m always really impressed how well they do, particularly at an event where for many this was their first time reciting their poetry to an audience and there were people of all ages — so it could have been very daunting for some.”

Kate Campbell, director of the Charles Causley Trust, was delighted with the success of the evening. She said: “Our National Poetry Day Slam and Fun Palace was a huge success. We had eleven poets of all ages step up to the challenge of reading their poetry in front of a live audience — some who had never done such a thing before and some who were more experienced.

“The gathering was expertly MC’d by Lou Sarabadzic and poets judged by a panel of local people who had to score each poet on their poem and their performance.”

Over the course of two rounds, judges were able to whittle down to a top three who made the final cut. Local primary school pupil Seth Gilbert and Callywith sixth form student Isaac Cude shared joint first place, taking home a cash prize and a certificate for their efforts. Second prize was won by School of Life graduate Nev Ackroyd.

Kate added: “The slam was such a great event that we are now going to run one during the 2020 Causley Festival, so get writing! You’ll have some stiff competition.”