Shortlist announced for the CLiPPA 2022 poetry award

The shortlist for the  2022 CLiPPA award (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education Poetry Award) for children's poetry has been announced. The award is run by CLPE (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education)

The shortlist was announced with the help of local school children at the new Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University and features collections by Valerie Bloom, Liz Brownlee, Matt Goodfellow, Manjeet Mann, Laura Mucha and 2017 winner Kate Wakeling. Independent publisher Otter Barry Books has three of its poetry collections shortlisted.

With the announcement of the shortlist, schools can now register for the CLiPPA shadowing scheme, which launches on 17th May (see details, below).CLiPPA Shortlist 2022

Stars with Flaming Tails by Valerie Bloom, illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max, Otter-Barry Books.
The judges called this a lively demonstration of how children's poetry can move from the personal to the planetary, the surreal to the scientific, laugh-out-loud to stop-and-think, in a breath.

Being Me: Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings by Liz Brownlee, Matt Goodfellow and Laura Mucha, illustrated by Victoria Jane Wheeler, Otter-Barry Books.
The judges said: Being Me weaves three distinctive writing voices with a deft and witty illustrator's eye to give young readers words and images to help them map all angles of their inner lives.  

Caterpillar Cake by Matt Goodfellow, illustrated by Krina Patel-Sage, Otter-Barry Books.
The judges said: Caterpillar Cake shows that we can bring subtlety and scope to the youngest reading ages by the power of reading aloud, not just hearing but feeling the words on your tongue.

The Crossing by Manjeet Mann, Penguin.
The judges said: The Crossing combines the narrative reach of a novel and the line by-line impact of poetry to tell the most urgently contemporary of stories in personal voices we cannot ignore.

Cloud Soup by Kate Wakeling, illustrated by Elina Brasliņa, The Emma Press.
The judges said: Cloud Soup whirls its readers deep into the play of the imagination so effortlessly that we barely notice how much we are learning about the craft, the thrilling possibilities, of poetry.

Poet and former professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Wales Philip Gross, who is chair of the judges, said, "This year's crop of books shows the diverse energies of children's poetry exploding in all directions, a glorious quandary for the judges to have: how to reduce this abundance to a shortlist, let alone a single winner. There seems to be a new confidence in the air, among publishers as well as writers - building on poetry's full resources, searching out new growing points."

Philip Gross is joined on the judging panel by fellow poets Nikita Gill and John Lyons, Becky Swain, director of the Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Charlotte Hacking, learning and programme director at CLPE.

Schools' Shadowing Scheme

As well as celebrating outstanding poetry, the CLiPPA encourages schools to explore the shortlist with their pupils through its Shadowing Scheme, each year prompting poetry performances in hundreds of classrooms across the UK.

Schools can now Register for the Shadowing Scheme, which will begin on 17th May

As part of the shadowing scheme, CLPE provides free teaching resources and videos to support the teaching of poetry in classrooms over a three week period. All participating schools can enter videos of their poetry performances as part of the scheme. One performance of each shortlisted poetry collection will be chosen as the winner.

Shadowing Scheme Key Dates:

4th May - 16th May - Register your interest in the Shadowing Scheme.

17th May - Shadowing Scheme begins  Free, three-week teaching sequences are made available by CLPE to use in your class to allow you to shadow the shortlisted books. You can also enter videos of your students' poetry performances to CLPE's shadowing competition.   

15th June - Shadowing Scheme closes. Poetry performances must be submitted by this date.

8th July -  CLiPPA Award Ceremony 2022. Winning Shadowing Schools will get the chance to perform on the Queen Elizabeth Hall stage in London.

The CLiPPA is the UK's leading award for published poetry for children. Past winners include Carol Ann Duffy, John Agard and Jackie Kay; Michael Rosen won in 2021 with his collection On the Move: Poems about Migration.