Prize Poetry Cosplay competition at Free Verse this Saturday!

In what may well be a world-first, this Saturday, Free Verse Poetry Book Fair is hosting a Poetry Cosplay competition, with splendid poetic swag for prizes! Sidekick Books are stoked to be judging this versquerade, which will take place at the Square Pig & Pen, Holborn, just after the thrills and spills of the main fair.

For those of you curious, but with a budget reserved strictly for books, or a shopping bag that will not accommodate a full bodily replica of Purgatory, here are some suggestions:

1. Poets like writing about objects.

From W.H. Auden's stopped clocks to Dorothy Parker's red dress, there are stacks of adornments and gubbins with which to decorate yourself. Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons is chock-full of little bits and bobs. The title alone lends itself to a little simple craft.

2. Home-made and ramshackle wins the race.

No need to spend much - just raid the cupboards! Cover yourself in tinfoil to recreate 'Silver' by Walter de la Mare, or don a sheet for Donne's 'The Apparition'. It's all about the walk-off in the end.

3. Puns are your friend.

Yes they are. And since I come from Grimsby, I am absolutely biased if you rock up in a GTFC football shirt and white beard,using the team's nickname to be 'Ryme of the Ancient Mariner'. Or something. What I'm trying to say is, you're a wordsmith. Get smithy.

Wordsworth, anyone?

4. Team up!

Here at Sidekick, we're all about collaboration, and if you're shy, camaraderie might give you the boost you need. So whether you're the Twa Corbies, the Owl and the Pussycat, or one man and his corvine nemesis for The Raven, it'll be more fun with a friend.

Name that Lewis Carroll poem!

5. If all else fails and you're blessed with a strong chin, Ted Hughes is your spirit animal.

A rumpled shirt and a stack of Brycreem and Crow's your uncle.

Disclaimer: Free Verse and Sidekick Books accept no responsibility to cool impartiality, should someone walk in in a full-on Jabberwocky outfit.