By: Staff Writer
August 17, 2021
The inaugural Caribbean Magazine Plus 2021 Poetry Contest has come to a successful end. We thank all of the participants who entered, those who paid and those who did not have it but still entered. We especially thank those who shared the flier about our contest and liked our various social media pages and also a special thank you for those who subscribed. You mean a lot to us and we are forever grateful for your support.
As we said in a previous editorial in this news site that this is a new business. CPM’s parent company, Arawak Media, is a COVID-19 baby, launched at the height of the pandemic because we saw the need and gaping hole in the Caribbean diasporic landscape and we jumped right through it. We were also delighted to add our Central American friends and parts of South America along with us too.
As a result of our widespread audience, spanning from the United Kingdom all the way to California, USA we find it our duty to be fair and transparent for all and sundry. Our poetry contest will be nothing short of fair and equitable to the most deserving winners.
Thus, what will happen since we closed the contest on August 15 is this: We have compiled all of the paid entries and we have sent them off to the first wave of our assessment team, from there the best ones will be shortlisted and then off to the second assessment team and so on and so forth until we are down to the best of the bunch where we will collectively decide the top three and award 1st, 2nd and 3rd accordingly.
Then when we have selected the top three entries, we will make a brief announcement on CMP and at that time announce a date for a short award ceremony, hosted by our lead assessment advisor, the eminently qualified Kwame McPherson.
Then after the award ceremony the awards will be disbursed to the winners via MoneyGram on or before September 15, 2021.
Then after that we are on to the next contest, which will be launched on September 14 to begin on September 15, God willing, “The Caribbean Magazine Plus 2021 Short Story Competition.” Rules and guidelines for this short story competition will be posted as we did for the Poetry Contest, so have no worries.
Additionally, all of the best entries, whether paid or unpaid, will be compiled for a book we endeavour to have published by December, 2021. So even if you did not have it to pay, your talents will not be wasted and your name will be exposed to the world, which is what we want to do for the talent of the Caribbean and Central American region.
We thank God for having such a successful first event and giving us the idea and tools we need to execute on this. We sincerely and humbly thank all of you who entered and we appreciate your willingness to share your culture and thoughts with us. We especially thank Mr McPherson for lending his time for our contest, he didn’t have to and for that we sincerely thank him for his time.
The next Poetry Contest will be next year, same time. God willing!
I love that you made it possible for people who could not necessarily afford the competition to still participate by sharing their talent… I am wondering if for next year you would consider making it possible for those who enter and pay to additionally pay the entry fee for another? I can only speak for myself but I would have been more than happy to sponsor another artist, giving them an equal opportunity at winning the prize purse which they may deserve more, based on their entry, as well as possibly need more based on their circumstance.