CLiPPA - The CLPE Poetry Award

CLIppa shortlist titles 2023 and girl on stage at the national theatre

POETRY

Photo ©Ellie Kurttz

The CLiPPA (Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award) is the only award solely presented for published poetry for children in the UK. Established in 2003, the annual Poetry Award encourages and celebrates outstanding poetry published for children. The winner of the CLiPPA receives a cash prize of £1000, a trophy, and opportunities to engage in ongoing publicity around their text being shortlisted for the Award. A shadowing scheme for schools runs alongside with free resources available to study and perform poems from the shortlisted collections.

Information for Publishers: CLiPPA 2024 Submissions Now Open

The submissions window for CLiPPA, the CLPE Poetry Award 2024, is now open from 16th November 2023 to 12th January 2024. Publishers are invited to submit collections of poetry published for children between 1st January 2023 and 31st December 2023.

Eligible collections include: an anthology, a single or multi-poet collection, a verse novel comprised of individual poems, or any other collection of poetry. Rhyming picture books, novels written in continuous verse, or re-released texts are not eligible. Submissions should be books that are aimed at an audience of children from 0-13 years old.

Six hard copies of each book submitted should be sent to: Phoebe Demeger (CLiPPA), Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, Webber Street, London SE1 8QW. Please note that the CLPE office will be closed from 22nd December 2023 to 2nd January 2024, so we will be unable to receive any deliveries between these dates.

Please also email the title, author and/or editor of the book(s) you are submitting to the CLPE Librarian, Phoebe Demeger (phoebe@clpe.org.uk), so we can be sure we have safely received all of your submissions.

The closing date for submissions is Friday 12th January 2024.

If you have any further questions please get in touch with Phoebe directly. We look forward to receiving your submissions.

CLiPPA 2023

This year's CLiPPA (CLPE Children's Poetry Award), in its special 20th anniversary year has been awarded to Marshmallow Clouds, poems inspired by nature by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, illustrated by Richard Jones,(Walker Books) described as a thing of beauty.” Choose Love by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Petr Horáček (Graffeg) is Highly Commended for her moving sequence of poems about the refugee experience.

The announcement came from CLiPPA judge, Chris Riddell during a buzzing live ceremony onstage at the Lyttleton Theatre, at the National Theatre on 10th July. The shortlisted poets read their poems onstage to a full house, and the CLiPPA Poetry Show also featured live poetry performances by children aged 5-13, winners of the unique CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme. The award was presented by last year’s CLiPPA winner Valerie Bloom and ALCS’s Mark Bispham.

The other shortlisted collections are:

Blow a Kiss Catch a Kiss by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Nicola Killen, (Andersen Press),
Let’s Chase Stars Together, by Matt Goodfellow, (Bloomsbury Education),
These are the Words by Nikita Gill, (Macmillan Children’s Books).

The judges for the CLiPPA 2023 were:

Chris Riddell OBE, illustator, artist, political cartonist for the Observer and former Children's Laureate who will chair the judging panel;
Valerie Bloom MBE, CLiPPA 2022 winner for Stars with Flaming Tails and author of other poetry volumes for adults and children;
Jay Bhadricha, Head of Programmes at Forward Arts Foundation, the charity responsible for the Forward Prizes for Poetry and National Poetry Day;
Indigo Williams, British-Nigerian writer, Spoken Word Educator and a Project Manager at BookTrust for the BookTrust Represents project;
Charlotte Hacking, Learning and Programme Director at CLPE