$100 First Prize to be Awarded the Winning Couplet

The Fist Annual Couplets Contest, part of the POETRY MEETS POTTERY event to be held at the end of the month, closes this Friday, February 12, when all couplets must be delivered to The Clay Studio on Buncombe St. in Edgefield by the end of the work day. All contestants must be residents of Edgefield County and must submit their entries on brown paper cut-outs in the shape of an Edgefield pot, still available at the Clay Studio or the Edgefield County Public Library until Friday. All submissions must be signed on the back with complete contact information: name, address, phone, email, school and grade where applicable. Submissions will be judged on the poems first, and secondarily on their decorations, if there be any, and in case of a tie.

POETRY MEETS POTTERY, the first annual event to include a rhymed couplets contest, will be held at the Clay Studio on Saturday, February 27, at 2:30 PM. The Poet Laureate of Edgefield, Laurel Blossom, would like to invite all and sundry to attend the event, at which the winners of the couplets contest will be announced. The contest, in honor of DAVE THE POTTER, master craftsman who wrote rhymed couplets on the shoulders of a number of his jars, was inaugurated in January, 2016. Blossom has visited the schools to promote student participation and has offered workshops at the Edgefield County Public Library for the public.

There will be no segmentation of the contest: each will compete against all.

There is a limit of one couplet per person.

Couplets will be judged by Laurel Blossom, Poet Laureate of Edgefield, and, if available, Camara Brown, Youth Poet Laureate of Edgefield, poet Calvin Butler and educator Mary N.Bates.

A cash award of $100 will go to the winner. Second place winner will receive a cash prize of  $50, and the third place winner will take home $25.

The winning couplet will be inscribed on an Edgefield pottery jar contributed by Justin Guy, master potter at the Old Edgefield Pottery. It is hoped that, during POETRY MEETS POTTERY, the prize jar will be prominently displayed (wrapped, like a mystery!) on a table or stand. When it is unwrapped, the winning couplet will be revealed!

All participants will have the opportunity to read their couplets aloud to the assembled audience. Refreshments will be served.