And then there were 5...

Poetry Idol Grand Final - where the rubber meets the road.

Rounds 3, 4 & 5 were close fought affairs with plenty of drama, humour and a fair amount of paper dart throwing. Several poets came for a second and sometimes third attempt to make the final 5 and the competition was fierce. More photos are below of Rounds 4 & 5 but here is the list of the 5 brave poets who'll step up to the mic this week on August 31st.

Rebecca Reider

Ricky Madibela

Marissa Johnpillai

Tim Wildermoth

Sam Warland

The stakes are raised as the poets must perform twice with 3 poems in each set - so the audience can separate the one-hit-wonders from the true Poetry Idol.

To those who are about to recite, we salute you...

Poetry Idol Round 5 - Images

1st place: Sam Warland

Rob Meredith

2nd place: Ben (again!)

Helen Yong

3rd place: Suzanna

Open Mic Special Guest: Poetry Idol 2004 Lindon McCormack

Poetry Idol Round 4 - Images

Helen Lowe

Lynn Tara Austin

'Golden' Graham Bates

Noel Alexander

Poetry Idol Round 3 - Images

1st place: Marissa Johnpillai 2nd place: Ben Brown
3rd place: Barbara Strang

With many thanks to Pip for the photos.

Last Call for Bravado International Poetry Competition

The deadline looms for the 3rd Bravado International Poetry Competition, 2006, which will be judged by Tony Beyer this year. The closing date is - 31st August - so if you want to have a go, you'd better get yourself organised.

You can request an entry form from info.bravado@xtra.co.nz or send SSAE to Kaye Hubner
Competition Secretary
Bravado
PO Box 13 533 Grey Street
Tauranga.

A generous number of prizes - 1st $500, 2nd $250, 3rd $100 and 10 Highly Commended prizes of $50 each. Poems must be the original work of the entrant, previously unpublished and not under consideration elsewhere. There's a limit of 40 lines for each poem, and the entry fee is $5 a poem, or $10 for three entries.

Winners will be notified by post, but other entrants will receive a copy of the results only if they send an SSAE with their entry. Results will be published online at www.bravado.co.nz and along with the winning poems in Bravado 8. Bravado 7 is on sale now. Check out cover and contents on the website.

Scorpio Rises to the occasion!

We are very pleased and proud to announce the support of one of Aotearoa's finest bookstores Scorpio Books in Christchurch for Poetry Idol 2006. Scorpio is providing the runners up in each of the five rounds with a $20 voucher - excellent! Imagine the treasures that await you in Scorpio Books - like Catalyst, for example... better yet, follow the link above and you can search for any book you like and if it's available they'll find it for you.

As in previous years, the Wunderbar is sponsoring Poetry Idol as the official venue and atmosphere provider, the Wunderbar is also providing a bar tab to each round winner - that's almost reason enough to enter - free drinks at the best bar in Christchurch!

Poets with enough sand can also volunteer to be thrashed by kez on the foosball table.

Poetry Idol - brought to you by the letter R!

Ricky roared and (w)riggled into the audience's favour while Rosemary relied on regaling the audience with the 'vibe'.


Round Two is complete and while we always say to expect the unexpected, no-one foresaw the two poet head-to-head that we had last night.

Round One on Thursday 27th July was a bustling affair with nearly a full entry card and some pretty fierce action. Eventually the audience's favourite was revealed and Rebecca Reider became the first finalist to add her name to the golden list for the Grand Final.

Round Two as mentioned was a strange one as a small but vocal audience watched just two poets vie for the next place on the list. Rosemary Scott and Ricky Madibela went head to head while the supportive audience cheered them on. So on a night where no-one went home without a prize, Ricky Madibela was the winner and the next poet to go through to the Grand Final on August 31, while Rosemary vowed revenge and stating her intent to re-enter the next round - look out!

Is there something about the letter R?