National Poetry Day's 19th annual celebration of poetry has grown since the calendar of events first went live on August 3rd.

We have added two more nationwide activities with the TEARAWAY Young Poets Feature and the online poetry challenge, Given Words. Both offer opportunities for poets to see their work published online. TEARAWAY's feature will be available to read online on National Poetry Day and there's not long left for young poets across NZ to send their poems in for consideration. Given Words is a one-time English language edition of a Spanish poetry project run by ex-pat Kiwi poet Charles Olsen, called Palabras Prestadas. Olsen's got five words from an Australian poet for us and it's our challenge to turn those words into something new. A selection of the resulting poems will be published on the Given Words website and the best poem of the bunch will also be translated into Spanish.

New events have also sprung up around Auckland, in Rotorua, Hastings, Havelock North, Motueka, and in Oamaru.