CLiPPA Poetry Award

Andrea Reece: Poetry Matters – Celebrating 20 Years of the CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award)

“We’re in a golden age of children’s poetry” says former Children’s Laureate and illustrator par excellence, Chris Riddell.

He should know: an accomplished poetry anthologist, Chris is chair of judges for the 2023 CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award), the UK’s leading award for published poetry for children.

For 20 years, the CLiPPA has highlighted the best new poetry for children. The very first prize in 2003 was awarded to John Agard and Grace Nichols for their anthology Under the Moon and Over the Sea (Walker Books) and since then winners have include Michael Rosen (twice), Jackie Kay, Roger McGough, and our current Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho; Valerie Bloom won in 2022 with her collection Stars with Flaming Tails.

Children’s poetry in the UK is booming partly because of the spotlight placed on it by the CLiPPA, and organiser CLPE, aka the National Poetry Centre for Primary Schools, do amazing things to celebrate the shortlist and winners, never more so than in this its 20^th anniversary year. The shortlist was revealed in an online event featuring live poetry performances from the shortlisted poets.

Just under 100 schools signed up, as well as many VIP guests, and the announcement was watched by over 2,500 poetry fans. What’s more, Charlotte Hacking of CLPE was able to announce at the event that the winner will be announced at the CLiPPA Poetry Show, live onstage at the Olivier, the largest of the National Theatre’s three theatres, on Monday 10 July, before an audience 1,000-strong.

The 2023 shortlist itself “reflects the wealth of talent in today’s poetry for children” says Chris Riddell. It features Joseph Coelho, with his gorgeous collection for the very young, Blow a Kiss, Catch a Kiss, alongside celebrated US poets Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek with Marshmallow Clouds, illustrated by Richard Jones. Matt Goodfellow makes his third consecutive appearance on the CLiPPA shortlist with Let’s Chase Stars Together, and Nikita Gill features for the second time in three years, this time for her collection These are the Words. Nicola Davies’ powerful examination of the refugee experience, Choose Love has also been selected.

The shortlist in full is:

Blow a Kiss, Catch a Kiss by Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Nicola Killen, Andersen Press.

‘A well-written, carefully considered first collection for the very young, full of poems which catch and reflect their emotions’, said the judges, who also praised its moments of sophistication.

Choose Love by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Petr Horáček, Graffeg.

Choose Love provides insight into the real-life experiences of refugees forced to leave their homes to face an unknown future. In the judges’ words, it is ‘Angry, compassionate, campaigning and written from the heart’. They also described it as ‘humane and uplifting – what poetry is for’.

These are the Words by Nikita Gill, Macmillan Children’s Books.

Nikita Gill’s collection features poems of rage, consolation, solidarity, hope and love and is ‘a book that readers will hold to their hearts’, said the judges, who highlight the way it connects so strongly with its audience.

Let’s Chase Stars Together, by Matt Goodfellow, Bloomsbury Education.

‘This is also a book that fully considers its intended audience’ said the judges, ‘Matt Goodfellow explores the power of poetry to make sense of their experiences in poems that are heartfelt and moving, alongside others that are simply very funny.’

Marshmallow Clouds by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, illustrated by Richard Jones, Walker Books.

The judges said, ‘Marshmallow Clouds is a beautiful book and we loved the feel of it as much as the poetry. With its beautifully crafted verse, it’s a book that demonstrates that good poetry for children transcends age barriers.’

Ranging from preschool to YA and beyond with beautiful books to appeal to all ages, the 20th anniversary shortlist will provide wonderful opportunities for the unique CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme, the jewel in the CLiPPA crown, which brings the poets and poetry on the shortlist into classrooms across the UK and encourages children to perform the poems out loud. CLPE expect over 30,000 children to take part in this its 20th anniversary year. Here’s to many more happy returns for the CLiPPA!

Andrea Reece

Andrea Reece works with CLPE on the CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award) and with The Full English on the Poetry By Heart national competition.

CLiPPA Poetry Award

Andrea Reece: The CLiPPA, Proving Poetry is a Must For Every Child

After a two-year absence, the CLiPPA, CLPE Children’s Poetry Award, stormed into the South Bank on 8 July, filling the Queen Elizabeth Hall with children’s poetry, children’s poets, and children. Even compared to previous CLiPPA ceremonies, the 2022 award had a special momentum; this wasn’t the first celebration of the year, but the third.

CLiPPA Shortlisted poets, Manjeet Mann, Laura Mucha, Kate Wakeling, compère Nikita Gill, Matt Goodfellow, Liz Brownlee and Valerie Bloom, with children who performed last year’s CLiPPA Poems. Image: Poppie Skold

The excitement began in May with the announcement of the shortlist at the Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University, hosted by Kaye Tew and Becky Swain. Four of the six shortlisted poets took part, Valerie Bloom, Matt Goodfellow, Laura Mucha, and Kate Wakeling.

Valerie Bloom, Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University. Image: Mike Frisbee

They were joined by classes of children from local schools, who had been reading the shortlisted collections and were partisan in their championing of their favourites. Here’s Poyvaz of Lily Lane Primary School summing up Being Me by Liz Brownlee, Matt Goodfellow and Laura Mucha perfectly, ‘I think this book should get an award because it is thought-inducing and it opens your eyes to the people around you. This book gives a voice to the people who don’t have a voice.’ Louise Fazackerley, Poet-in-Residence at Lily Lane, explains just what a special event it was, ‘The children were enthralled by the words of the world-class poets at this event. They loved visiting the university and feeling that their opinions about books are important. We saw the confidence of the children grow as they took their place onstage, just like their writing heroes.’

CLiPPA shortlisted poets: Laura Mucha, Manjeet Mann, Matt Goodfellow, Kate Wakeling, Valerie Bloom, Liz Brownlee (and Paddy, assistance dog). Image: Poppie Skold

From Manchester, next stop was The Globe in June, a CLiPPA showcase for the Poetry By Heart finals. All six shortlisted poets were able to take part, Liz Brownlee and Manjeet Mann joining Valerie, Matt, Laura and Kate. There too, of course, children were at the heart of the programme, ten-year-old Alfie giving a solo performance of Water from Michael Rosen’s 2021 CLiPPA-winner, On the Move,

Alfie, who performed from Michael Rosen’s 2021 CLiPPA winning *On the Move*, Walker Books.
Image: Sam Strickland

and eight-year-olds Jozef, Giulia and Muneef from Swaffield Primary School, Wandsworth giving a spirited performance of Cheers from Matt Goodfellow’s Bright Bursts of Colour. Swaffield are Shadowing regulars, teacher Jean Bennett says, ‘Our whole school waits in anticipation for the Shadowing scheme to be launched. There is a buzz of energy from Years 1 – 6, every class wanting their representatives to be selected.’

Jozef, Giulia and Muneef, Swaffield Primary School, performing from Matt Goodfellow’s CLIPPA 2021 shortlisted *Bright Bursts of* *Colour,* Otter-Barry Books. Image: Sam Strickland

And then on 8 July the CLiPPA rolled into the Queen Elizabeth Hall, bringing old and new friends together. Valerie, Liz, Matt, Manjeet, Laura and Kate were joined by Michael Rosen as show host. Chris Riddell returned to take up his pen and live-draw proceedings. Excitement levels rose as the Shadowing winners arrived, including the entire Reception year from Churchend Primary Academy, Tilehurst, who would wow the audience with their performance of Caterpillar Cake, title poem in Matt Goodfellow’s shortlisted collection; and eight students from Levenshulme High School, Manchester, stars of the shortlist event, who moved many to tears with their sensitive interpretation of 336 Days Before from Manjeet Mann’s The Crossing. An audience of 800 watched in person, while across the country, schools were glued to the livestream – CLPE estimate as many as 9,000 viewers in total.

Valerie Bloom, winner of the CLiPPA 2022 Poetry Prize for *Stars with Flaming Tails*, Otter-Barry Books. Image: Ellie Kurttz

That party that began in March in Manchester finally ended with huge, joyful applause for Valerie Bloom, announced as winner of the 2022 CLiPPA for her collection Stars with Flaming Tails, described by Philip Gross as ‘poetry that can go anywhere’. (Isaac in Manchester will be pleased, he made a strong case for Valerie being ‘one of the greatest poets in history’). Except we all know that’s not the end, because the experience of taking part, of reading poetry, learning poetry, and writing their own poetry, will enrich the lives of all the thousands of CLiPPA participants for ever.

Valerie Bloom with her winning book *Stars with Flaming Tails* and some starstruck poetry performers. Image: Ellie Kurttz

Andrea Reece

Andrea Reece worked as publicist on the CLiPPA 2022. She is editor of Books for Keeps, she reviews for Lovereading4kids and is director of the children’s programme of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival. She runs the Klaus Flugge Prize and also works on the Branford Boase Award.

CLiPPA Poetry Award

Andrea Reece: Celebrating the CLiPPA 2021

Celebrating the CLiPPA 2021

Is there any prize more joyful than the CLiPPA? The CLiPPA highlights the best new poetry for children and, through the Shadowing Scheme, allows schools and children to get up close to the collections on the shortlist, turning thousands into lifelong poetry fans.

The celebrations for this year’s shortlist announcement were particularly exciting, even for the CLiPPA, a prize that regularly takes over the National Theatre. The five books were announced live on stage at The Globe, part of a day of magnificent poetry performances for this year’s Poetry By Heart project. Congratulations to Tim Shortis and Julie Blake for creating the event and delivering it so successfully.

Before the shortlist announcement, the audience was treated to performances from two of the winning schools in the 2020 CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme. First up were ten-year-olds Freddie and Zane from Swaffield Primary School, Wandsworth with their lively recitation of the poem Brother and Sister by Lewis Carroll, which appears in A. F. Harrold’s collection Midnight Feasts. (Both boys, incidentally, claim they thoroughly approve of the poem’s concluding moral: ‘Never stew your sister’.) Then, with a ‘Boom-ba-da-Boom!’ seven-year-old Benji from Norwich Road Academy, Thetford performed Fireworks by Anna E. Jordan, which features in The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog, edited by Paul B. Janeczko, illustrated by Richard Jones. Benji says he loves the rhythm of the poem, which shows him how to read it.

After that it was time for this year’s chair of the judges, Allie Esiri, to take to the stage to announce the 2021 shortlist. And it is (deep breath), alphabetically by poet:

Slam! You’re Gonna Wanna Hear This, chosen by Nikita Gill, Macmillan
This inspiring collection, curated with great skill by Nikita Gill, brings together ‘some of the fiercest voices in British verse’. It’s a book to excite young people about the potential of poetry, say the CLiPPA judges.

Bright Bursts of Colour, Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Aleksei Bitskoff, Bloomsbury Education
The poems in Matt Goodfellow’s collection range from the silly to the sensitive, and all will resonate with children aged 7 – 11. The judges loved Matt’s dynamic representations of real-life experiences, and clear understanding of a child’s sensibilities.

Run, Rebel by Manjeet Mann, Penguin
Compelling, powerful, and authentic, Manjeet Mann’s verse novel speaks directly to its YA audience. The judges loved the fresh voice and how a form used by Coleridge is made new.

Big Green Crocodile Rhymes to Say and Play, by Jane Newberry, illustrated by Carolina Rabei, Otter-Barry Books
Beautifully presented and perfectly illustrated, this collection of new nursery rhymes is a perfect post-lockdown book, allowing grown-ups and small children to connect.

On the Move, Michael Rosen, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Walker Books
On the Move is both personal and universal, with messages of home, identity and family. Full of emotion, delivered with a perfect sense of understatement, words and illustrations provide readers with spaces to pause and consider.

Poets Jane Newberry, Manjeet Mann, Matt Goodfellow and Michael Rosen were there to read poems from their shortlisted collections, icing on the CLiPPA cake!

The winner will be announced on 11^th October alongside the launch of the 2021 Shadowing Scheme. Do explore the books on the shortlist, because each of these collections reminds us what the best poetry for children can do, which is of course the point of all the CLiPPA celebrations.

This year’s judges are poets Zaro Weil, 2020 CLiPPA winner with Cherry Moon; Amina Jama, whose debut poetry pamphlet A Warning to the House that Holds Me was published by Flipped Eye Press in 2019; Julie Blake, co-founder and Director of Poetry By Heart; and Charlotte Hacking, Learning Programmes Leader at CLPE.

Andrea Reece

Andrea Reece reviews for Lovereading4Kids, is managing editor of Books for Keeps and the children’s programme director for the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival. A former manager of National Poetry Day, she is very happy to be working now with CLPE on the CLiPPA.

CLiPPA Poetry Award

Louise Johns-Shepherd: CLiPPA 2020

It was only about 10 days ago, when I said I would write this blog about CLiPPA in the time of lockdown. My plan was to write about how we were defying the odds, taking to the internet and soldiering on with the only award solely for published children’s poetry in the UK.

How fast things change in this slowly moving time.

We have just announced that we are postponing the CLiPPA shortlist announcement for the time being and we don’t know what the time scale will be for the 2020 Award.

The reasons for this are manifold and like everything at the moment, complex. The CLiPPA is always a brilliant interplay and partnership between poetry, poets, illustrators, performance, audiences, teaching and learning. This horrible virus and the situation it has created has touched every part of our plans.

We’ve spent the last six years working to put children at the heart of this award. The involvement of our schools in the shadowing scheme is a unique and important part of using the shortlist to build a poetry community. With schools functioning very, very differently at the moment and teachers working round the clock to accommodate this, we don’t think that the shadowing would have the best chance of success. And we can’t produce the resources that normally support the shadowing scheme right now. We are a fiercely independent charity and around 85% of our income comes from revenue that we earn. At the moment it isn’t possible for us to do that. Our Centre and our beautiful Literacy Library are closed and more than half our staff are furloughed. We can’t make videos, we can’t get to the books and we are concentrating the efforts of our remaining staff on supporting teachers who are teaching key workers’ children and on providing support for home learning.

The CLiPPA is always a team effort. A key part of that team is the wonderful, selfless support we get from the National Theatre. They have also had to close, they don’t know when they will open and they can’t possibly know what their schedule will be when they return. We need to give them the time and space to work this out.

Our brilliant chair of judges for the 2020 award is Michael Rosen. I’m sure you’re aware that Michael is currently ill with suspected coronavirus. Our other judges have been meeting virtually and working hard but we want Michael’s focus to be on getting himself well. We know that everyone will agree with this and will respect our decision to wait before proceeding with this year’s arrangements.

The reason CLiPPA exists is to promote children’s poetry. Yes, there are wonderful winners but the shortlist is equally important. We want to promote, to celebrate and to acknowledge the brilliance of all the books on the shortlist and to give them all the prominence and the publicity they deserve. We just don’t think that will happen right now.

All of which is really rather depressing. Yet there are also wonderful things happening that have made our hearts sing. Our fabulous supporters and sponsors ALCS and Arts Council England have been amazing and nothing but helpful and supportive in every way. Our brilliant partners like National Poetry Day, Poetry Archive and Poetry by Heart have been so lovely they’ve brought tears to our eyes and the generosity of spirit from everyone we’ve had to tell has been wonderful.

And poetry is important right now. And children’s poetry is SO important right now. We’ve seen fabulous online initiatives from children’s poets like Laura Mucha, Matt Goodfellow, Joanne Limburg, Brian Moses, Roger Stevens, Irish Laureate Sarah Crossan and many more, bringing poetry writing, reading and listening into the homes of children. We’ve seen the #PoemADay take off and visits to the CLPE Poetryline site have doubled in the last fortnight with thousands of children, teachers and parents watching previous CLiPPA shortlisters read their poems and talk about their writing.

So whilst this isn’t the blog I set out to write when I first took it on, it is hopeful. CLiPPA 2020 will happen. Like many things right now, it might be late and it might not be quite what we planned, but it will happen and it will involve thousands of children and hundreds of schools. In the meantime we know that the wonderful children’s poetry community is still there and still working to bring the power of poetry to millions of young people because poetry heals, poetry helps and poetry matters.

Louise Johns-Shepherd

Before joining CLPE in 2013, Louise was the headteacher of two schools, a nursery school and a primary school and was also a senior leader in both the Primary National Strategies and the National College of School Leadership. Louise is the governor of a primary school and is a judge for a range of book awards including the Cheltenham Festival Reading Teachers, Reading Pupils, Amnesty CILIP Honour Medal and the 2019 Brandford Boase. She writes articles and blogs for a range of publications. She tweets at @loujs.

CLiPPA Poetry Award

CLiPPA Poetry Award 2019

CLiPPA 2019

A highlight of our year at CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) is the CLiPPA award ceremony which we’ve organised in collaboration with the National Theatre.

The CLPE Poetry Award started 17 years ago, to fill the gap left by the Signal Poetry Award. A list of the winners since then with other information about the award can be found on our Poetryline website.

In 2014 we made the award more high profile, the announcement of the winner being made at the recently opened House of Illustration with a linked poetry trail featuring poems from the shortlisted titles. However, children themselves remained the missing guests at the feast and thin 2015 we began a schools’ shadowing scheme, created resources to help teachers introduce the books to children, and started a partnership with the National Theatre. Thanks to chair of judges Roger McGough commenting that the prize needed a more snappy name, it became the more catchy CLiPPA which stands for Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award.

The relationship with the National Theatre has continues and led to a capacity crowd filling the Lyttelton Theatre this year on Wednesday 3rd July. Our Poetry Show featured the five shortlisted poets; Kwame Alexander for his verse novel Rebound (Andersen Press), Rachel Rooney for her collection A Kid in My Class (Otter-Barry Books), Steven Camden for his collection Everything All At Once (Macmillan Children’s Books), Philip Gross for Dark Sky Park (Otter-Barry Books), and Eloise Greenfield for Thinker: My Puppy Poet and Me (Tiny Owl).

Schoolchildren performed from each of their books, with the proceedings compèred in an inimitable manner by chair of judges, A. F. Harrold, assisted by fellow judges Ruth Awolola, Charlotte Hacking and Susannah Herbert. It has now become a wonderful tradition for Chris Riddell to be seated on the stage, live drawing throughout the event.

The schools chosen to perform were selected from more than 100 videos sent in as part of our shadowing scheme. First on the stage were five children from a Birmingham primary school, one of whom took on the role of the cool dude in Rachel Rooney’s poem ‘Cool’ from A Kid in My Class. Then Rachel herself appeared in disguise as a hamster to perform ‘The Hamster Speaks’ featuring a character who scampers through the pages in Chris Riddell’s accompanying illustrations.

Neither Kwame Alexander nor Eloise Greenfield could be at the ceremony as they live in the USA but both sent video messages with warm greetings and recited respectively from Rebound and Thinker: My Puppy Poet and Me.

Three boys from a Northolt primary school captured the rhythm of the basketball court in their rendition of ‘Air Jordan’ from Rebound while a whole class of 30 children from a primary school in Uxbridge gave a captivating presentation of Eloise Greenfield’s ‘Thinker’s Rap’.

Two girls from a Hertfordshire junior school gave a spine-tingling interpretation of ‘Aleppo Cat’ from Philip Gross’ Dark Sky Park followed by Philip diving deep into his collection subtitled ‘Poems from the Edge of Nature’ to read ‘The Abyss’.

A startling solo performance came from a girl who had travelled from a Norfolk school taking on the dual roles of a child and the blank page staring at her in ‘Anyone’ from Steven Camden’s debut collection Everything All At Once. Steven then shared his heartfelt poem ‘Dear Mum, BTEC’ which is for every young person who wants to convey to their parents and teachers that they need to plough their own furrow and that taking a practical path is equally as valid as an academic one.

One of the great things about the Poetry Show is that it celebrates all of the shortlisted titles. However, by the end of it, the audience is alert to hear the announcement of the winner. This year, the judges chose to highly commend Eloise Greenfield’s Thinker: My Puppy Poet and Me. The accolade of this year’s CLiPPA, though, went to Steven Camden’s Everything All At Once, a book that the judges felt should be given to every child in Year 6 in anticipation of their move to secondary school and the new phase of life into which they will be entering.

The show ended with the announcement of a partnership with National Poetry Day to encourage children to write poems on this year’s theme, Truth. This was presented via a video featuring several poets who had previously won the CLiPPA with their first collection for children, including Joseph Coelho, Karl Nova and Rachel Rooney. Seeing those faces up there was just one of many emotional moments of the day for me, having been associated with the award from the beginning.

It was great this year to witness one of those moments for others. I happened to be sitting next to Gaby Morgan, publisher of the winning book and Steven Camden was on the other side of her. A. F. Harrold prefaced the moment when he announced the winner by mentioning that this poet went by another name as a performer – that of Polarbear – and that was when Steven and Gaby knew their book had won and it was wonderful to feel their delight and emotion.

Ann Lazim

Ann Lazim is the Literature and Library Development Manager at CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education) where she has worked for over 25 years. This multi-faceted role includes being the administrator for the CLiPPA (Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award). Ann has an MA in Children’s Literature from Roehampton University and is active in IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People).