Cheddar poetry: Be inspired by Simon Armitage, 2019 Wells Festival of Literature judge

Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate and Wells Festival of Literature's poetry judge for last year, is presenting a new Radio 4 podcast on BBC Sounds, and Cheddar poets are being urged to use it as inspiration.

He is opening up the shed at the bottom of his garden, where he writes, to a variety of guests who share the secrets of their creativity and life lessons with the listeners.

Guests include the spoken word performer Kate Tempest and the poet Jackie Kay. However, the podcasts do not deal exclusively with poetry.

Other guests include the Turner Prize winner Anthony Gormley, the actress and model Lily Cole, the DJ and Elbow frontman Guy Garvey, the world-record beat-boxing champion Testament and the actress Maxine Peake.

Folk singer Sam Lee, who was short-listed for the Mercury Prize, encourages Simon to take a trip to the woods to try out his vocal chords.

The podcasts, entitled The Poet Laureate Has Gone To His Shed, are produced by Sue Roberts and became available on March 11. They are updated weekly, with each new episode featuring a different guest with Simon.

If the creative muses of Simon and his guests inspire you to put pen to paper, there is still time to enter the Wells Festival of Literature's writing competitions.

There is a Poetry competition to be judged by the multi prize winning Jo Shapcott, a competition for Young Poets to be judged by the poet, writer and film maker Victoria Adukwei Bulley, a Book For Children competition to be judged by the author of Shrunk! Fleur Hitchcock and a Short Story competition to be judged by the freelance audio producer and writer Duncan Minshull.

There are cash prizes to be won for all these competitions. First prize for the winner of the poetry competition is a whopping £1,000, second prize £500, third prize £250, plus a prize of £100 for a local winner.

The first prize for the young poets is £150, second prize £75 and third prize £50, plus a year's subscription to the Poetry Society for each winner.

Prize money for the Book for Children and the Short Story competitions is £750 for the first prize, £300 for the second prize and £200 for the third prize, with £100 prize for a local author in each category.

Winners will be announced at the Prize Giving Ceremony, one of the highlights of the festival, on October 18.

The Wells Festival of Literature is run entirely by volunteers and one of its aims is to promote a love of reading and writing in young people.

Hence 2.5 per cent of every £6 entry fee goes towards education projects in state schools in the wider community.

The money is used to put on literary events for young people and for published authors to visit children of all ages in their schools.

All competitions close at midnight on June 30 2020. For more details visit the website www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk.