Write Out Loud @20 Poetry Competition
Opened for submissions: 10/02/2025 00:00 GMT
Closes for submissions: 11/04/2025 23:59 BST
This competition is open for submissions. Read Rules and Enter
Echoes - The WriteOutLoud@20 poetry competition
We launched our website on 3rd May, 2005, with no idea how long it might continue, so we are delighted to still be here 20 years later, thanks to you all. Your feedback consistently tells us how you value our articles and reviews as well as the poetry blogs (our online community) gig guide, local groups and projects helping young people enjoy writing and sharing their poetry.
As a group of dedicated volunteers, our aim is to grow and develop that work into the future. And we need your support, the competition being a fundraiser, as well as a huge opportunity for quite a few of you either to win a prize, or, as a runner-up, to have your poem appear in our Echoes competition anthology.
So come on, get writing! Let's hear those resounding echoes of your words in our writeoutloud@20 competition. (Opens for entries 10th February.)
Make sure you register on the site to receive information about our history, current work, and top tips and ideas for your writing.
Not entering?
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The Theme
The theme is 'Echoes', for you to interpret as you see fit (within our terms and conditions).
Prizes
The following prizes will be awarded:
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First place: £500
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Second place: £250
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Third place: £50
Winning entries and those of selected runners-up will appear in a competition anthology.
Entries
Entries are via the website only. We do not accept email or posted entries. The cost of entry is as follows:
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1 poem - £5
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2 poems - £10
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3 poems - £12
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Any additional poems - £4 each
Multiple poems must be entered together within the same submission to qualify for discounts.
Dates
The competition is open to submissions from February 10th.
The deadline for submissions is April 11th 23:59 BST
We aim to announce the winners on May 25th.
Competition Judging
Neil Astley
Neil Astley
This special competition is part of our 20th anniversary celebrations. Special because Neil Astley has agreed to be our judge. He is founder and editor of Bloodaxe Books, the UK's most prolific, highly-regarded publisher of poetry anthologies.
Like Write Out Loud, Neil is guided by Adrian Mitchell's view that 'most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people'. Like us, Neil has brought more people to enjoy and gain fulfilment from poetry, as well as, in his case, redressing imbalances in the availability of writing by women and minorities.
What Neil looks for in a poem:
I publish poetry that I respond to as a reader. I am most interested in subject-matter, breadth of vision, engagement with language, and a lively interplay of intellect and emotion.
I want to be grabbed by a writer doing something different. Not just well-written but an original voice, distinctively the work of that particular writer.
Neil
As with most competitions, we never know how many entries we will receive, so we recruit a number of experienced filter judges, with each poem initially assessed by at least three of them to arrive at a final 100 poems from which Neil will choose our winners and runners-up.
Before submitting your poems, be sure to read our Terms and Conditions.
Terms and Conditions
1. In the following, the terms ‘we’ and ‘our’ refer to Write Out Loud CIC 2015.
2. By submitting your work, you are deemed to have read and agreed to abide by these terms and conditions.
3. All poems must:
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Be entirely your own work;
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Be in English (non-English words within and relevant to the text are acceptable);
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Have a title;
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Be no longer than 40 standard lines (not including title);
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Be left-justified only – we cannot accept poems needing special layout (e.g. concrete poems);
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Not contain your name or any other means of your being recognised – judging is done anonymously.
4. Poems are judged anonymously so poets' names or other means of self-identification MUST NOT appear on the poem
5. Each submission can contain as many entries as you wish on payment of the appropriate fee.
6. Each entry within a submission must contain exactly one poem. That is, we accept no more than a single poem per page.
7. Entries must not have been published, self-published, published on a website, broadcast or featured among the winners in another competition.
8. The Competition is open to anyone over 18, other than members of the Write Out Loud team, or anyone involved with organising or judging this competition.
9. Only poems submitted on www.writeoutloud.net are eligible. All submissions must conform to the Write Out Loud website Terms Of Use.
10. Those whose work is selected will be contacted by email and results announced on the Write Out Loud website, on social and related media, and in the press where appropriate.
11. Copyright of each poem remains with the poet, but by entering the competition you grant us the right to publish the winning, commended and runner-up poems as follows:
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online and in printed media
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for inclusion in a printed anthology (subject to funding);
12. By submitting, you are deemed to warrant that you are over 18, that all work submitted is your own work and contains nothing that breaches copyright, plagiarises others’ work, or infringes any intellectual property rights whatsoever.
13. Others’ work can be included or referenced within your poem, with appropriate permissions which must be made available for our inspection if requested. Responsibility for securing written permission rests with the individual submitting the work. We accept no responsibility or liability whatsoever in the event of any failure to secure such agreement.
14. No corrections can be made to poems once entered, nor fees refunded. Amended poems may be resubmitted (before the deadline) on payment of the appropriate fee.
15. Correspondence on individual work cannot be entered into except for technical matters to do with uploading.
16. We accept no responsibility for any damage, loss, injury or disappointment suffered by any entrant submitting poems to this event, howsoever caused.
17. We accept no responsibility to any party for any technical failure whatsoever.
18. In any dispute judges’ and curators’ decisions will be binding and final and no correspondence can be entered into regarding such decisions.
19. The competition organisers reserve the right to change the judge without notice.
This competition is assocated with the Write Out Loud profile Write Out Loud @20