Hay Festival's search for tweets
Organisers of this year's Hay Festival have launched a search for a new kind of poetry - the most beautiful tweet ever tweeted.
It will be judged by comedian Stephen Fry, a long-standing member of the Twitterati whose musings on the site attract 1.5m followers.
Entrants can submit their own tweets - messages no longer than 140 characters - or nominate other tweeters.
The literary festival, in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, will run from 27 May to 6 June.
This year's line-up includes former Pakistan leader Pervez Musharraf, playwright Tom Stoppard and novelists Martin Amis, Zadie Smith and Hilary Mantel.
Organisers of the festival say the definition of the most beautiful tweet could fall into a number of different categories, including the most eloquent, most evocative or the best pun.
The tweets can be new or old, personal submissions or nominations for others.
Entries should be sent to the Hay Festival Twitter account and not via Fry's own Twitter account.
To take part, tweets must begin with @hayfestival followed by the suggested tweet. If the tweet belongs to someone else, their username should be included.
has more information on how to submit entries and trawl the archives for tweets.
Nominations are open from Monday 24 May and the closing date is midday on Friday 4 June.
The winning tweet will be announced on Sunday 6 June, when Fry will take to the stage at the festival to talk about his new memoir.
The broadcaster announced he was temporarily quitting Twitter earlier this year to concentrate on the second instalment of his autobiography.
Fry made a surprise return to Twitter in April to promote marathon runner Holly Lambert.
He wrote: "I'm really not tweeting, book so achingly close to completion. But this is time sensitive. Good cause."
The tweet boosted the 24-year-old's page visits from 250 to more than 33,000.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/u ... 699424.stm
Published: 2010/05/23 14:24:43 GMT
Tweet me a poem
Tweet me a poem
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: Tweet me a poem
Chirpies
A Canarial disease
It's untweetable..
A Canarial disease
It's untweetable..
Sometimes it seems as though one has to cross the line just to figger out where it is
Re: Tweet me a poem
Keld, I hope you've submitted that!
Re: Tweet me a poem
In rhyming iambic monometer:
(Hey, I don't write the stuff; I just report its existence.)How odd
Of God
To choose
The Jews
Reason is valuable only when it performs against the wordless physical background of the universe.
Re: Tweet me a poem
Please please submit those!
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
Re: Tweet me a poem
And the winner is..
The most beautiful tweet ever tweeted has been announced by broadcaster Stephen Fry.
Fry, whose musings on micro-blogging site Twitter have attracted 1.5 million followers, announced the winner at the Hay Festival.
The winning tweet read: "I believe we can build a better world! Of course, it'll take a whole lot of rock, water & dirt. Also, not sure where to put it."
Marc MacKenzie, 41, from Canada, said he was "pleasantly surprised" to win.
"The recognition and knowing Fry picked my tweet is a huge honour."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/10250967.stm
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
