BELFAST — The eleventh annual Belfast Poetry Festival, October 16 - 17, seeks teams of poets, performers, and artists for the annual juried presentation of original collaborative works featuring poetry combined with visual and performance arts.

This year's festival will feature on October 17 "The Greatest Poetry Show on Earth," a Saturday evening celebratory showcase of poetry combined with visual arts, with performance arts, with both at once, and poetry in combinations never before imagined or known.

The work will be presented live in a multimedia hall with performance stage, sound system, and large-scale screen projection for artwork.

The festival is seeking proposals for such combinations of poetry and dance, music, theatre, or other performance arts; poetry and visual arts; or poetry in combinations the festival has not anticipated. Each type of collaboration will have eight minutes for presentation during the show.

In addition, the festival is also seeking applications for a limited number of collaborations of poetry and visual art for physical display in Belfast venues during the month of October without live performance or presentation.

The Belfast Poetry Festival draws a devoted assemblage of poets and artists from across the state and beyond. The festival will include open and featured readings, workshops, book signings, a gallery hunt, pop-up gatherings, the Maine Postmark Poetry Contest, and other programming in various Belfast venues over the weekend.

Submission Info:

All submissions will be juried by the Festival Committee.

To submit, email a sample of three poems plus images, clips, video, or website of the collaborating artist's work and a brief written concept of your proposed poetry and arts collaboration. Include appropriate bios (75 words or less) and web links.

Address submissions to jacob@belfastpoetry.com by May 15,.

Embed poems in the email message text and send images and/or clips as attachments. Selected participants will be notified in late May.

The festival follows a two-year rotation policy and discourages applications involving participants in last year's festival.

Collaborations by teams of more than two people are welcome and encouraged.

Join a diverse and rich celebration of the power of poetry to move hearts and minds.

For more information, and for reference to previous festival performances, see the festival website at www.BelfastPoetry.com, friend The Belfast Poetry Festival on Facebook, or email jacob@belfastpoetry.com.