A PUBLISHER based in Malmesbury has launched a poetry competition this autumn, asking entrants to discuss the topic of migration.

Bernadette Jansen op de Haar, who moved to the UK from the Netherlands in 1983, founded Holland Park Press in 2009 specialising in giving new English-language authors a chance to be published as well as promoting literature from her homeland.

In 2015, Bernadette’s brother Arnold moved from Arnhem to join her in running the company, publishing his own experiences of being an EU migrant in his collection of poems The Refrain of Other People’s Lives which has inspired the competition.

Bernadette said: “We’re inviting you to send us a poem that deals with the subject of migration.

“Poems can be triggered by any aspect of or point of view about migration.

“We don’t have to agree with your opinions but we do want to be touched in some way by your poem, inspired by its imagery and, of course, we look for a beautiful use of language.”

The first place prize is £200 and publication in the Holland Park Press online magazine. Poems must be written in English with a maximum length of 50 lines and writers must be aged 18 or over.

For more information and to submit your poem email submissions@ hollandparkpress.co.uk and for further details go to hollandparkpress. co.uk