Shetland Library is launching a new round of Bards in the Bog, the popular project which puts poetry in public toilets.
Bards was first devised and run by the Library in 2009 as a partnership project with the Scottish Poetry Library and Shetland Arts. The idea caught the public imagination and there were further rounds in 2010 for the Hamefarin, in 2012 with poet in residence Jen Hadfield, in 2014 for the Year of Dialect and in 2015 when ‘Bards in the Bruck’ was run in partnership with Shetland Amenity Trust. Although it has been five years since the last round, many of the poems are still displayed in conveniences around the isles.
In 2009 the Library published a booklet of the first 24 Bards in the Bog poems, which raised over £1,000 for charity Water Aid.
Winners have included published poets from beyond Shetland such as Chrissie Gittens, Alison Brackenbury and Sheila Templeton as well as esteemed local writers such as James Sinclair and Jim Mainland.
Entry is open to everyone of any age, and people are invited to submit original, short poems to be installed on the back of toilet doors. The theme is entirely open, but the important rule is that poems must be short – a maximum of 16 lines that display comfortably in large font on an A4 poster. This is so that they can be read comfortably by readers seated a few feet away.
This round of Bards is being run for Book Week Scotland 2020, supported by Scottish Book Trust. Winning poets will get £50 book tokens as well as their poems published online and posted in local conveniences.
The deadline for entries is Tuesday, 27 October 2020 and winners will be announced at the start of Book Week Scotland on 16 November.
Karen Fraser, Library manager said: “This has been one for our most enduringly popular projects and the standard of poetry we’ve attracted over the years has been really impressive. We quite often get folk contacting us about a poem they have seen and enjoyed. Because of the ongoing coronavirus restrictions it is difficult to plan physical events for Book Week Scotland, so we thought this was a perfect chance to bring back Bards. Despite restrictions we hope to have readings of the winning poems and find novel ways of celebrating them. ”
More information about how to enter, along with previous Bard in the Bog poems, is available on the Shetland Library website at www.shetland-library.gov.uk/Bards.asp