poets

Phantom Billstickers has announced a partnership with the NZ Book Awards Trust to promote National Poetry Day – the biggest nationwide poetry event of the year.

The 19th National Poetry Day will now be known as Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day and will continue to bring poetry to the people, with over 80 events held nationwide, involving everyone from seasoned award winners to aspiring poets facing the microphone for the first time.

Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day will be held on Friday 26 August, continuing the legacy of taking poetry to the people from Kerikeri to Southland, across the streets of small towns and major cities.

“It’s an opportunity to hear more poetry – there’s the possibility to take it back to the regions that built us,” says Jim Wilson, owner of Phantom.

“We’ve been putting the New Zealand voice out there for some time. Now with this exciting partnership, that voice will become louder.”

He says Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day is about discovery, diversity, community and pushing boundaries. Poetry enthusiasts generate events such as slams, poetry-music jams, poetry art exhibitions, performance poetry, poetry and dance, poetry street chalking, bookshop and library readings, open mic events and poetry writing competitions.

Nicola Legat, chair of the New Zealand Book Awards Trust, said: “We have long admired Phantom’s commitment to putting poems on posters and in cafes via their Café Reader. They are a natural partner given that Phantom’s business is taking messages to the streets and that’s what the New Zealand Book Awards Trust aspires to do with poetry.”

• Phantom: jamey@0800phantom.co.nz, 021 333 012
• NZ Book Awards Trust (Paula Morris): p.morris@auckland.ac.nz, 021 0285 1315
• Trust website: www.nzbookawards.nz

About The New Zealand Book Awards Trust
This was established as a charitable trust in 2014 to govern and manage the country’s two major literary awards and National Poetry Day, and to ensure their longevity and credibility. New sponsorship agreements have now been secured for all three properties with Ockham supporting the Book Awards, Hell Pizza backing the Children’s and Young Adult awards via its support of the Reading Challenge and Children’s Choice programmes, and Phantom National Poetry Day. Additional funders include The Acorn Foundation, Book Tokens Ltd, Creative NZ, Copyright Licensing Ltd, the Fernyhough Education Foundation, Nielsen and Wellington City Council, supporting specific aspects of the properties.

http://www.nzbookawards.nz/national-poetry-day/