[Janice D. Soderling]

Have I told you brilliant people about this?

http://www.flash500.com/index_files/humourverse.html

Welcome to our Humour Verse Competition! We have noticed a scarcity of humour verse competitions with decent prize money, even though there are huge numbers of people who like to write and read humour verse. So we at Flash 500 decided to launch this one — and it has grown into a must-enter competition for writers of humour verse.

What are we looking for? Any form of humour will be accepted, in any style, but the content must be original and it has to make us smile. Anything from a limerick to a poem of 30 lines in length is accepted.
The competition will be run quarterly with closing dates matching the Flash 500 competition: 31st March, 30th June, 30th September and 31st December. The results will be announced within six weeks of each closing date and the three winning entries each quarter will be published on this website.


Entry fee: £3 for the first poem, then £2.50 for each poem thereafter
.

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I am not sure what is meant by "decent prize money". Either the verse should be decent (which immediately diaqualifies most of you), OR it refers to how winners are allowed to use their funny money. No cigars, no Playboy magazines, no bottles of fancy cognac. (That may eliminate a number of you as well.)

It may be against D&A principles to enter competitions that limit the ribald imagination OR that have entry fees.

Just saying.

[John Whitworth]

Yes, Janet. Sounds god. I'll give it a whirl. I wonder what they think is funny.

[Mary McLean]

Martin Parker has done quite well at these, so their taste is all right. You should be able to read the previous winners on the site.

[Jayne Osborn]

I am not sure what is meant by "decent prize money".

It's £150, £100 and £50 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd, the same as we gave for the Northampton Literature Group competition (not running this year, and possibly not again, but never say 'never').

I was most heartened to read this about the judge, Sarah Willans:

"...She is an enthusiastic supporter of light verse, which she sees as very much the equal of 'serious' poetry, and is delighted to support a competition that acknowledges and encourages humorous verse."

I feel the same way; light verse is so often unjustly seen as the "poor relation of proper poetry".

I'll have a go. Thanks for the link, Jan.

Jayne

[Janice D. Soderling]

The amounts I know, but "decent"?

Good luck to you, Jayne, and all your dirty mates.

[John Whitworth]

Ah Martin. In that case... And the young Allgar I see. Right. I've entered one of my Haggs poems. Or at least I think I have.

Northampton biting the dust, Jayne. What a shame.

[Brian Allgar]

That's sad, Jayne. I thought they said it would continue at least for this year?

Still, at least that liberates the pieces I was saving for the NLG, though where to send them is another matter.

As to the Flash500 competition, I've entered it a couple of times and had two pieces "longlisted" and one "shortlisted" (presumably the equivalent of an HM), though I've yet to touch the folding.

"It may be against D&A principles to enter competitions that limit the ribald imagination OR that have entry fees."

Janice, the former, certainly; the latter, probably not.

[Peter Goulding]

I had a couple of third places in the Flash competition though, being a tight-fisted git, it breaks my heart to send money.
Very disappointed to hear about Northampton. Provided me with one of my very few near-successes - thwarted at the post by the ubiquitous Parker.

[Brian Allgar]

Yes, Martin is a sort of "Ubi... Roi".

[Ann Drysdale]

Oh, yeah? And I am La Reine Rosemonde