Judges for Mother Tongue Other Tongue - multilingual poetry competition

Judges for Mother Tongue Other Tongue - multilingual poetry competition

This is an opportunity for students who are multi-lingual or who are learning another language, who also have an interest in poetry in other languages, to be judges for this year’s Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition for 8-18 year olds.

Entries in both categories – Mother Tongue (poetry in a home or heritage language) and Other Tongue (an opportunity for children to be creative in a language that they are learning) are currently being submitted. 

Entries will be shared between judges after the competition deadline on 20th May. You must be available to read and select entries between Monday 25th May for a week and Friday 5th June, which is when final decisions will be made.

Allocations will be distributed to all judges on Monday 25th May. Each piece is read by at least three judges, focusing mainly on a commentary/rationale in English to accompany the poem submitted.

After initial reading of entries and submission of judging decisions w/c 25th May, the following week w/c 1st June, there will be online meeting(s) to discuss any pieces where there is disagreement. So you must be available and able to give time during these two weeks, though you can engage remotely.

Further information about the project, including the competition rubric and judging criteria can be found here: https://www.mmu.ac.uk/mothertongueothertongue/how-to-enter

Hours expected:

Approx 2 days (10 hours) w/c25th May to read entries and submit your judgement.

Approx 5 hours at intervals during the w/c 1st June for additional judging meetings and to write up your comments on selected pieces.

Judges may also be asked to submit editing suggestions for pieces they have judged and be asked to proof read these once they have gone through the design process. (This element is optional but judges generally want to follow the process through.) This element of the process can also be done online and can take anywhere between 1 hr and 4 hours, depending on the poem submitted.

Judges will also be invited to attend the celebration event on 8th July. This takes the form of a day of creative workshops, where young people whose work has been selected come in to attend workshops. This is optional but it is in person, in the Poetry Library and there are opportunities for judges to work as ambassadors on the day (paid). A celebration for all volunteers (again optional) will also take place, in the Poetry Library, on the early evening of Wed 8th July.

The total hours of engagement for the judging element of the project would be approx 20 hours over three-four weeks. With the option of attending as a paid ambassador on July 8th.

Please apply, with a brief paragraph or two (no more than 200 words please).

• Please give details of your own language story and your interest in poetry.
• Tell us why you would like to be included on the judging panel and give detail about any relevant experience.
• Please also list any languages spoken/written and level of competency.
• Please tell us what course you are currently studying.

Points Available

90 points manual allocation