Autobiographies, romance novels and murder mysteries are popular picks at the local library, but poetry is often overlooked.
Okotoks Public Library staff plan to change attitudes towards poetry by challenging the public to try its hand in a friendly competition for Poetry Month in April.
“It’s just a different form of literature that gets people thinking about something different,” said Aline Church, juvenile and French librarian. “I hope it gets people to read poetry and get interested in something other than fiction or non-fiction. It’s to get them reading, get our books moving and get them to see what we have in our library.”
This is the third year library staff held the contest. In its first year, the contest was limited to elementary school children. Last year it included teens and adults with about 15 entries, Church said.
“I read online that April is Poetry Month and I just wanted to give it a try,” she said of spearheading the contest.
Church said library staff has already received 10 entries from various age groups so far this month.
This year’s contest is strictly for blackout poetry, where the poet uses a marker to eliminate words on a page in a book or newspaper until a poem is formed.
The contest also allows contestants to arrange magnetic words on a board located at the library to create a poem, take a photograph of it and email it.
“It’s quite interesting what we’re getting in now,” said Church. “Some people have included drawings.”
Examples are set up at the front entrance of the library with instructions and supplies.
“We have some books that were damaged, so we’ve pulled pages out of those books and put them up there for them to use,” she said. “We encourage everybody to look at our display and maybe try their hand at our poetry.”
Church said staff also put poetry books on display in the juvenile section in hopes to draw interest. She said there’s more of a selection of poetry than there used to be.
“When I started in the juvenile section, the poetry books were quite limited,” she said. “I decided I was going to concentrate on trying to get a lot of poetry in there to get the kids interested in that. Since I’ve done that, especially this month with them on display, they really go out a lot. It’s a good way to get them circulating and get the kids interested in that.”
Church said she’s worked with children in school libraries for 25 years and has developed a good understanding of what they like to read.
“That’s why this is a good thing to do because they’re not drawn to poetry,” she said. “If you put the poetry out there and make it fun for them they are more likely to get involved in it. It’s different than just picking up a fiction book and reading it.”
The poetry contest closes at the end of the day on April 30. Library staff will judge the entries and announce the winners on Facebook and at www.okotokslibrary.ca
Contest entries can be dropped off at the library or sent to [email protected]
