A poetry contest supporting VERSefest will line up with the supposed apocalypse.
The contest, called Poetry for the End of the World, is supposed to fit into the “widely held superstition that the end of the world will be in 2012,” according to Kathryn Hunt, one of the contest organizers.
Six finalists have been chosen through blind judging, meaning that the judges don’t know their identities.
They will be performing their poems on Jan. 21.
The winning poem will be tied to a weather balloon that will lift to about 100,000 feet — high enough to see the curvature of the Earth. Once high enough, the gas inside the balloon will burst and “go out with a bang,” according to the VERSefest website.
“The 2012 end-of-world ideas are floating around everywhere; it seemed like a great excuse to have a party,” said Kevin Matthews, one of the contest organizers, via email.
“Since we also wanted to get the poetry community together in January to raise funds and awareness of this year’s VERSefest, it lined up nicely.”
