Poet or photographer, this frost, snow and freezing cold weather could just be the ticket to get your creative juices flowing to enter the 2023 Snowdrop Festival photography and poetry competitions.

With concerns growing about global climate change and our future environmental sustainability, the 2023 Snowdrop Festival theme, Let Nature Thrive, couldn't be more relevant.

Jason Ingram, an award-winning photographer and judge for the photography competition, is looking forward to some creative interpretations of the theme:

"Nature surrounds us all in some shape and form every day so this brief is as wide as you can interpret it. When you really start to look you see elements of nature thriving the moment you walk out of the door.

"Whether you live in a city, town or the countryside, we are surrounded by it."

The poetry competition was singled out by Reedsy last year and recommended as one of the Best Writing Contests of 2022.

The poetry judge for 2023, an award-winning poet, is Wendy Pratt, herself an award-winning and published poet.

She said: "I'll be looking forward to reading poems in which nature is found in unusual places, or perspectives are changed and challenged on what is and isn't beautiful. We are trained to divide plants and animals into 'good' and 'bad', but there really isn't a difference; there are no weeds,only plants that are deemed to be in the wrong place.

"It's much easier to love a beautiful bird than a slithering slug, but all nature is interconnected, everything has its role, and its job and all is beautiful in its own way."

Prizes are awarded for each of the competitions: 18 and over – 1st prize £200, 2nd prize £70, 3rd prize £50; 12 to 17 – 1st prize £100, 2nd prize £40, 3rd prize £30; 11 and under – 1st prize £50, 2nd prize £20, 3rd prize £15.

The closing date for the Poetry Competition is 8 January. Entry to the competition could not be easier; visit the website to find out how. The closing date for the Photography Competition is 30 January.