[Chris O'Carroll]

As some of you know already from Lois's and Rob's posts in the "updated poem" thread, the New Statesman regards competition entries that have been posted here as previously published and therefore ineligible to appear in the magazine.

To anyone who has had an entry disqualified on that basis, I apologize for having been unaware of the policy. Now that I know, I want to alert everybody to refrain from posting anything that you're going to submit. Unless, of course, your entry is good enough to beat mine, in which case you should definitely post it, and make a point of notifying the NS that you have done so.

I've sent Vicky an email on this subject, and will post an update if there is any further news.