I Know, I Wish, I Will – Submit Your Own Poetry to a National Competition

As part of the celebrations to Eastside Educational Trust’s 25th anniversary, they’re inviting all young poets aged 5-25 across England to join I Know, I Wish, I Will – the world’s longest youth-led spoken word poetry marathon!

This free-to-enter spoken word competition challenges young creatives to write and perform their own original poetry in response to the theme ‘I know, I wish, I will’. All entrants to the competitions will be in with the chance to perform their work live on stage, and to have it published in the I Know, I Wish, I Will souvenir book, creating a record of our nation’s young voices in 2020.

The competition provides free resource packs and video guides for beginners, experienced poets and teachers of a variety of key stages. These are specially designed in partnership with professional spoken word poets to give entrants and teachers everything they need to create a winning entry.

Eastside, along with their five cross-UK partners, will be delivering an exciting programme of school workshops alongside the competition in some of the country’s most underserved boroughs, with the help of professional poets. Over 225 spoken word creativity workshops have already been delivered in primary and secondary schools around London, South Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Peterborough and Merseyside since September and their poetry submissions are now rolling in.

So please, if you’re a young person who fancies giving it a try, click here to visit the Eastside website, watch some of the videos and get creative! If you’re a teacher or work with young people, please spread the word to as many 5-25-year-olds as you can.

Visit the I Know, I Wish, I Will page on the Eastside website for more information.