this collection is throwing its first ever poetry slam — but forget what you’ve seen and heard before. This is not your usual slam: there will be no brownie points for shouting, no judges, and the poet with the most mates won’t win automatically. This is a friendly slam — all styles, personalities and poetics are welcome. See below…

The this collection friendly slam will take the following form:

ROUND ONE:all poets perform under a 2.5 minute time limit. You can do ANYTHING YOU LIKE with those 2.5 minutes — shout, rap, whisper, read off paper, read from memory, read one poem, read fifteen haiku, whatever.

ROUND TWO: the five poets with the lowest scores (see below) will be eliminated, and the remaining poets will perform again — same time limit, same rules.

FINAL: the three poets with the overall highest combined scores from both rounds (and possibly a wildcard) will slug it out in the final (3 minutes this time) for the title of this collection slam champion — and for our lovely prizes (see below).

SCORING: no scary judging panel, no howling audience whooping extra loud for their friends. Each poet will be scored by the other poets performing. Every poet gets a scorecard, and marks their fellow performers out of 30 (marks out of 10 for content, delivery and each scorer’s personal response). Scoring will be ANONYMOUS as scorecards will be collected and tallied by an adjudicator after each round. All poets — including finalists and eliminated poets — will give scores on all three rounds. Please note, poets can’t score themselves!

PRIZES:
1ST — £25, and a mystery prize pack (contents TBC!), plus the title of this collection slam champion!
2ND — £10, and a mystery prize pack
3RD — £5, and a mystery prize pack

PERFORMING ON THE NIGHT!
Stephen Welsh // Scottish Slam Champion 2011 Young Dawkins // Bram E Gieben // Fiona Lindsay // McGuire // Tickle McNicholl // Russell Jones // Mairi Campbell-Jack // Andrew C Fergusson // Andrew Philip // Alec Beattie // Dave Forbes // Sophia Walker // Chris Lindores // Cat Dean // Dave Coates

THIS COLLECTION ALL-WELCOME POETRY SLAM! Come and slam with us for a chance to win some cash!

Invite your friends to our Facebook event! Hope to see you there!

(Photo by Kyre Wood)