For the third time this year, “Suitcase of Verses” was opened – this is the name of the favorite poetry contest of poets from the Novgorod region. As usual, poetry was read in the Central City Library. D. M. Balashova MBUK “Biblionica”.
Traditionally, there were three nominations: permanent – “Free Theme”, “Cities and Countries” and “Acrostic”. On the third, poetic works were to be presented, the first lines of which form a word or a meaningful phrase. This task was new for Novgorodians and it turned out to be more difficult than others – only 19 people decided to try to complete it. For comparison: 43 poets, all participants this quarter, submitted a work on a free theme. However, as the jury noted, they did well.
“This season, 43 people participated, which is a lot. 10 new people appeared: three of them participated for a long time and this year they remembered the competition again, and seven are completely new people for us. Can you imagine how many poets we don’t know?”, the organizer of the contest, library employee Loretta Papretsite, addressed the guests of the evening.
The meeting took place in a warm, pleasant atmosphere: the poems of the contestants and all the winners were read and they praised each other. Even the jury, which included heads of creative associations, editors of literary publications, teachers, winners of the contest from previous years, this time completely gave up criticism. The poets could declare in person – over a cup of tea at the end of the official part.
“This time, luckily, I got to put a lot of high fives in the free section. In some of our quarterly “reviews” it has happened that you read the first line and the second already wants to be edited. Here – no matter what the poem is, it’s somehow arranged in such a way that you don’t want to edit anything. I want to enjoy it and immediately put the top five, ”complained the participants to the member of the jury who evaluated the poems on a free topic, Vladimir Shadursky, associate professor of the Department of Philology of the Novgorod State University “Yaroslav the Wise”, candidate of philological sciences.
The poets themselves were also pleased with both the results and each other’s work:
“Really good poems were recognized as the best. This is one of those races you believe in. Of course, there is some subjectivity in the evaluations of the jury, but this is normal. You can’t get away from personal impressions. We are all human. But I am sure of the fairness of the competition,” poet Vladimir Isakov, a participant in “Suitcase of Poems”, shared his impressions.
The winners of this season were: Vladislav Rybin from Starorussky district with the poem “Wedding Walked” (nomination “Cities and Countries”), Antonina Chudilova from Pestovo with the acrostic “The witch-autumn invited me to visit … ” and Irina Polskaya from Demyansk with acrostic “August comes out”. They all scored over 20 points. Second place went to Daria Esina from Veliky Novgorod with a poem on a free theme “Drop”, the best in her nomination (20 points). Third place went to Elena Kuleshova from Novgorod, now living in Moscow, with the acrostic “Like lightning on the outskirts of the sky…”.
The October meeting of the participants in the “Suitcase of Poems” contest was the last for this year. Results for the fourth quarter will be summarized after the New Year holidays. The nominations have already been announced: “Free Topic”, “Humor and Satire” and “Short Genre”, for which poems of up to six lines will be accepted.
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