LEDBURY Poetry Festival's annual Poetry Competition opened for entries this week, with a first prize of £1,000 cash and a residential course at T? Newydd ,The National Writing Centre of Wales.

Festival manager, Phillippa Slinger said: "T? Newydd is renowned for its excellent writing courses, taught by outstanding poets in a beautiful setting. Winners also have the opportunity to read their poems at Ledbury Poetry Festival, in 2019.

"Nia Davies, who will judge the competition, is a poet and editor of Poetry Wales. She has co-curated and participated in several transcultural collaborations, projects and events and her work has been widely translated. She is currently undertaking practice-based research into poetry and ritual at Salford University.

Winning the Ledbury Poetry Competition has been an important career step for a number of poets who are now well known.

Jacob Polley, the winner of the 2016 T S Eliot Award, started his career with a win at Ledbury in 2001.

And the competition is increasingly international with the previous two years won by Americans Jonathan Greenhause (2017) and Miller Oberman (2016).

The closing date for entries is July 12.

Further details at: www.poetry-festival.co.uk