About Us
Our aims and objectives are:
to promote an awareness of the values of equality and peace,
to encourage and promote creativity, expression and excellence through peace poetry,
to work in partnership with Leeds based organisations to create an environment for the exploration and discussion of the selected theme,
to organise peace poetry competitions annually or biennially for schools and adults in Leeds,
to encourage inclusive engagement and participation in the Leeds Peace Poetry competition,
to invite a celebrated poet to preside as chief judge for each competition,
to organise a gala celebration event for shortlisted and winning entries of the competition,
to create a strong presence and a high profile for Leeds Peace Poetry,
to publicise the winning and highly recommended peace poems.
to promote an awareness of the values of equality and peace,
to encourage and promote creativity, expression and excellence through peace poetry,
to work in partnership with Leeds based organisations to create an environment for the exploration and discussion of the selected theme,
to organise peace poetry competitions annually or biennially for schools and adults in Leeds,
to encourage inclusive engagement and participation in the Leeds Peace Poetry competition,
to invite a celebrated poet to preside as chief judge for each competition,
to organise a gala celebration event for shortlisted and winning entries of the competition,
to create a strong presence and a high profile for Leeds Peace Poetry,
to publicise the winning and highly recommended peace poems.
Who We Are |
Leeds Peace Poetry was established in 2003 by a group of people connected with Together for Peace, Leeds City Council - Education Leeds (now Leeds Children's Services) and Arts at Trinity. Since then, many others have become involved. We are constantly looking for volunteers from Leeds-based organisations and individuals who wish to help us to further our aims.
Currently, our steering group of ten members is made up of individuals with a track record of promoting equality and peace and with enthusiasm for Leeds Peace Poetry. Organisations represented include the University of Leeds (School of English), Leeds City Council Children's Services (Schools) and Leeds Library and Information Services. Officers are Rehana Minhas (Chair), Professor John Whale (Vice-Chair) and Richard Wilcocks (Secretary, Website) leedspeacepoetry@gmx.co.uk From a University of Leeds perspective, we have been delighted to join in with this long-standing and successful event since it coincided with the Olympics seven years ago. Since then, we have had the privilege of reading and selecting the prize-winners along with our distinguished chief judges and have been able to offer venues on campus for our prize-giving gala celebrations. From my own point of view as Director of the University of Leeds Poetry Centre - and as a poet myself - this is obviously a fantastic opportunity to engage with a wider public in the making of poems. Most of our entries in the past few years have been in the Primary School category; and here we have been delighted by the enthusiasm and creativity shown by both children and teachers across the Leeds region. One of the most enjoyable aspects of the last few competitions has been the work not just of individuals, but of whole classes of children - so much so that we have added a new class category to our list of prizes. The Leeds Peace Poetry competition also, of course, gives us the chance to demonstrate how poetry matters - how it can give powerful expression to some of the key issues of our time. John Whale 2019 The Leeds Peace Poetry Competition is a truly fantastic event, which has proved to be a catalyst and inspiration for some amazing pieces of work by people of all ages over many years. Judith Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council June 2016 Zaffar Kunial Zaffar Kunial is a British poet born in Birmingham, who currently lives in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. His mother was English and his father, who has since moved to Lahore, is from Kashmir. Zaffar studied at the London School of Economics and later attended Michael Donaghy’s classes at City University. He published a pamphlet in the Faber New Poets series in 2014 and was Poet-in-Residence at the Wordsworth Trust the same year. In 2011 he won third prize in the National Poetry Competition with ‘Hill Speak’. With Steve Ely, Denise Riley and Warsan Shire, he contributed to The Pity, a series of new poems commissioned and published by the Poetry Society as a response to the centenary of the First World War. Much of his work to date has drawn in creative ways on his rich cultural inheritance as an Anglo-Asian writer, and what he calls the “the legacy of exchanging words across the centuries.” Us, his first collection, was published by Faber & Faber in 2018. 'Zaffar Kunial is a real find. His poems are precise, startling in their originality, full of grace. Kunial traces the roots in language to then track the roots in his mixed-race identity, effortlessly transporting the reader from one place to another.' Jackie Kay 
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