Latitude festival poetry competition grows

Latitude Children's Poetry Competition

Latitude Festival, in partnership with BBC Radio Suffolk, BBC Radio Norfolk, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, BBC Three Counties Radio, BBC Essex, and BBC Radio Northampton, has announced the return and most ambitious expansion yet of its poetry competition for young writers, timed to coincide with World Poetry Day.

Now in its third year, the competition has grown from a single-county initiative into a major regional platform spanning six BBC Local Radio areas and reaching children across the East of England and beyond. For 2026, the theme is Generations, a theme that reflects Latitude’s own 20-year journey and invites young poets to explore the relationships, stories, and the threads that connect us across time.

Generations is a theme as vast as it is personal. From grandparents and grandchildren sharing stories around a kitchen table, to the passing on of traditions, languages, and memories or even imagining the world future generations will inherit, the 2026 competition invites children to think big and write from the heart.

As Latitude prepares to mark two decades of music, arts, and ideas, the theme of Generations feels especially resonant: a celebration of what endures, what changes, and what young voices have to say about both.

Festival Director and Founder, Melvin Benn said, ‘Twenty years of Latitude is a cause for celebration, and what better way to mark it than by asking the next generation to tell us what they see. This competition has grown year on year, and in 2026 it truly comes of age. I hope the theme of Generations inspires poems that surprise us, move us, and remind us why young voices matter.’

The competition invites children aged 7–11 to submit an original poem of no more than 200 words on the theme of Generations. Entrants must reside in or attend a school in one of the six BBC Local Radio coverage areas:

  • BBC Radio Suffolk
  • BBC Radio Norfolk
  • BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
  • BBC Three Counties Radio (Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire & Buckinghamshire)
  • BBC Essex
  • BBC Radio Northampton

Six winners, one from each region will have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to perform their poem live on Latitude’s iconic Waterfront Stage, opening the festival on the evening of Thursday 23 July 2026, a moment that will mark the start of Latitude’s 20th anniversary celebrations. One of these will be selected as the overall winner, who will also get a backstage tour at the festival.

Since its debut in 2006, Latitude has been as much a celebration of language and literature as it has been a music event, and the first festival in the UK to give poetry its own dedicated stage. Among those who have performed there are: Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Benjamin Zephaniah, Jackie Kay and Kae Tempest. Judge and renowned East Anglian poet Luke Wright curated Latitude’s poetry stage from the very first edition in 2006. It was his vision, at a time when no major UK festival had thought to programme poetry, that changed what a festival could be. For the 20th anniversary, Latitude is planning its most ambitious poetry programme to date, with some of those founding voices set to return. Full announcements will follow.

The Latitude BBC Poetry Competition has quickly become one of the festival’s most cherished traditions. In its debut year, 11-year-old Anna from near Lavenham moved audiences on the Waterfront Stage with her environmental poem The Mother Tree. In 2025, under the theme of Friendship and with the competition expanded to three BBC counties, seven-year-old Myles from Wymondham, Norfolk, won the hearts of judges with A Friend Like Steve, a joyful celebration of companionship set in the world of Minecraft. Now, for the festival’s 20th year, the competition takes its biggest leap yet: six BBC stations, a region-wide reach, and a theme that speaks to the very heart of what anniversaries are for.

A distinguished panel drawn from the worlds of poetry, broadcasting, and the arts will review all entries.

Rob Jelly, host of BBC Upload across the East and competition judge said: ‘I love being creative. And having a front row seat every week on BBC Upload to creatives from across the East of England is such a privilege. To work with Latitude Festival for its 20th edition and give the next generation of poets the chance of a lifetime, opening the festival, will be a memory I cherish for a long time. I have a feeling the challenge of judging will be a tough one, but feeling and creativity go hand-in-hand, so I’m looking forward to it.’

Arts Curator for Latitude, Kirsty Taylor is responsible for programming arts performances, including comedy, spoken word, theatre, visual arts, and dance. Kirsty said, ‘Generations is a theme with infinite possibilities: the passing of time, the voices we carry with us, what we inherit and what we leave behind. Identity, inheritance, the stories we are handed and the ones we choose to tell differently. As Arts Curator at Latitude, I think about what stops an audience in its tracks, what makes a person lean in. The most powerful performances I have witnessed have always come from a place of real heart and authenticity. That is what I am hoping to find in these entries. I want to be surprised. I always am!’

Renowned East Anglian poet, Luke Wright has built a reputation as one of Britain’s most popular live poets. He has won multiple Saboteur Awards and has performed at every Latitude Festival. Luke’s latest collection Later Life Letter (Little, Brown, 2026), a memoir in poetry exploring adoption, family and belonging, is published this year.

Luke said, ‘In my latest project, Later Life Letters, I found myself circling around questions of inheritance — what we’re given, what we carry, and what we choose to pass on. The lives that shape us, the ones we step into, and the love that somehow threads through it all.

‘Poetry’s one of the best ways we have of exploring those connections. It lets us hold a moment still: a grandparent and grandchild talking across a kitchen table, a family ritual handed down, a child trying to make sense of the world their parents have given them.

‘And don’t be afraid of the harder stuff either. Families aren’t tidy things. They’re complicated, messy, full of difficult moments as well as beautiful ones. That’s part of the inheritance too.

‘The poems I’m hoping to read are the ones that feel lived-in and honest – something that rings true.’

Key dates:

  • Entry closes: Midday, Friday 24 April
  • Winner notified: By Friday 29 May 2026
  • Winning entries announced: Wednesday 3 June 2026, across all six BBC Local Radio stations
  • Winning poets perform: Thursday 23 July 2026, opening the Latitude Festival on the Waterfront Stage

The Finalists

Six winners will each receive an invitation to attend Latitude Festival 2026 with their families. Each will perform their poem live in front of a festival audience on the Waterfront Stage if they choose to. The poems will be published on Latitude Festival’s website and broadcast across all six BBC Local Radio stations. One of these will be selected as the overall winner, who will also get a backstage tour at the festival.

Children aged 7-11 who reside in or attend a school within one of the six BBC Local Radio areas are invited to submit an original poem of no more than 200 words on the theme of Generations.

To submit an entry and view the full Terms and Privacy Notice, visit www.bbc.co.uk/latitudepoetry.