Calling all UCL student poets: what’s your response to the Covid-19 crisis?
16 June 2020
Apply for this year's Yale-UCL poetry competitions by 31 July for the chance to win a £1000 prize.
The organisers of the Yale-UCL Poetry Prizes recognise that many students – in the US, the UK, and around the world – will be involved in the continuing struggle against racism that has gained new impetus since George Floyd’s death, both practically and in terms of emotional attention. ÌýAs a result, we have decided to extend the deadline for submissions until Friday 31 July. ÌýAdditionally, for the open competition where poems need to focus on a medical or public-health related these, we will welcome poems that address the structural effects of racism in healthcare and health outcomes or the inequalities that the Coronavirus pandemic has revealed and reinforced.
Yale and UCL have announced a poetry competition for all their students, to run alongside the annual joint poetry competition open to their medical students only.Ìý
The poetry competition for medical students was born out of the Yale-UCL Collaborative that fosters partnerships in the biomedical sciences and engineering, and has influenced the study of social sciences, humanities, law and architecture at the two universities as well as facilitating student and staff exchanges.
Now in its tenth year, the poetry competition has given medical students at the two universities the opportunity to address creatively their particular experiences – and to produce some extraordinary poetry.Ìý
This year the Coronavirus outbreak has prompted the organisers to adjust the poetry competition, extending it to all Yale and UCL students.Ìý
There will be two competitions:
- An ‘open’ competition for all Yale and UCL students for the best poem that addresses a recognizably medical or public-health related theme. One prize of £1000 is up for grabs.
- A ‘closed’ competition for Yale and UCL students of medicine and allied disciplines, with aÌýchance to win aÌýprize of £1000.
The prizes are offered thanks to the generosity of an external donor.