From Writer's Forum Magazine. Slams are fast-paced fun-filled performance poetry competitions where vibrant versifiers strut their stuff and wield their words in front of an appreciative audience. They're a fun, entertaining way for people to encounter poetry- certainly very different from the more traditional readings in libraries.
Poets compete in heats, the order drawn from a hat.
The heat winners meet in the semi-final, with the two highest scoring poets then meeting head -to -head in the final.
Poets must use a different piece or pieces of their own poetry in each round.
A time limit of three minutes is allocated to each poet in each round.
Three pairs of random judges(usually members of the audience) give each poet a mark out of 100.
Poets are assessed on three different criteria: the quality of the writing, the quality of the performance and the warmth of the audience response. The louder the cheers, the more points for the poet.
If you'd like to see a Spiel Unlimited poetry slam in action or to enter yourself, you can contact Spiel Unlimited at
spiel@spiel.wannadoo.co.uk of you'd like to join their email list and recieve a monthly newsletter detailing their work and upcoming slams, or if you'd like to host a slam in your village, hall, school, or even living room.
I like the sound of that
