Hannah Lowe to judge £600 Ware Poets competition
Hannah Lowe will be judging the £600 Ware Poets competition. The deadline is 30 April 2017. More details
5th December 2016
Deadline nears for £2,000 Causley prize
The former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion will be judging poems shortlisted for the £2,000 Charles Causley international poetry prize, set up in memory of the Cornish poet. Motion said “‘I’m looking for poems that surprise me – not by their ostentation, but by making me see, think, remember, recove...
16th November 2016
Deadline nears for £1,000 Cafe Writers competition
Andrew McMillan will be judging the £1,000 Café Writers poetry competition. The deadline is 30 November. More details
PHOTOGRAPH: INNES MORRISON
7th November 2016
Deadline nears for £5,000 National Poetry Competition
Moniza Alvi, Gerry Cambridge, and Jack Underwood will be judging this year’s £5,000 National Poetry Competition, which is run by the Poetry Society. The deadline for the competition, which attracts ar...
12th October 2016
Kathleen Jamie to judge £1,000 Rialto poetry competition
Kathleen Jamie will be judging the £1,000 Rialto magazine nature and place poetry competition, run with the RSPB, BirdLife International and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. The deadline is 1 Ma...
9th October 2016
Deadline nears for £5,000 Resurgence poetry prize
Jo Shapcott will be judging the £5,000 Resurgence prize for eco-poetry. The deadline is 1 October. More details
18th September 2016
Malika Booker to judge Leeds Peace poetry competition on theme of refugees
Malika Booker will the chief judge of this Year’s Leeds Peace poetry competition, on the theme of refugees. There are three categories – primary school, secondary school, and adult – and entries shoul...
14th September 2016
Hannah Silva to judge £500 Verve competition for Birmingham poems
Hannah Silva, pictured, will be judging the adult section of the £500 Verve poetry competition, for poems about Birmingham. The children’s section will be judged by Emma Press publisher Emma Wright. T...
13th September 2016
Deadline nears for £1,000 Live Canon competition
Lorraine Mariner will be judging the £1,000 Live Canon poetry competition. Twenty-five shortlisted poems will be published in a prize anthology, and performed by the Live Canon Ensemble at a prizegivi...
6th September 2016
Deadline nears for £1,000 Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre prizes
Daljit Nagra will be judging the £1,000 Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre competition, which has two £1,000 prize categories – an open category, and another for those who write with English as their second...
20th August 2016
Helen Mort to judge £500 Bare Fiction poetry prize
Helen Mort will judging Bare Fiction magazine’s £500 poetry prize. The deadline is 31 October. More details
20th August 2016
Catherine Smith to judge £1,000 Kent and Sussex poetry competition
Catherine Smith will be judging the £1,000 Kent and Sussex Poetry Society competition. The deadline is 31 January 2017. More details
19th August 2016
Alison Brackenbury to judge £600 Cornwall poetry festival competition
Alison Brackenbury will be judging the £600 Cornwall Contemporary Poetry festival competition. The deadline is 3 September. The festival will be held over the weekend of 12-13 November in Falmouth. Mo...
17th August 2016
Full collection and pamphlet competitions from Indigo Dreams
Publishers Indigo Dreams have launched two competitions, to publish a full collection and a pamphlet. The Geoff Stevens Memorial prize will go to two winners, who will each receive a royalty publishin...
9th August 2016
Deadline nears for £600 Buzzwords competition
Jo Bell will be judging the £600 Buzzwords poetry competition. The closing date is 7 August. Proceeds of the competition will be used to fund Buzzwords, a long-running, regular poetry gathering in Che...
2nd August 2016
Linda France and Andrew Forster to judge £1,000 Flambard poetry prize
The £1,000 Flambard poetry prize, awarded annually to the best group of five poems submitted by a poet who has not yet published a single-authored pamphlet or collection, is once more open for entries...
1st August 2016
Mort, Howe and O'Riordan to judge £10,000 Manchester poetry prize
Helen Mort, pictured, Sarah Howe and chair Adam O’Riordan will be judging the £10,000 Manchester poetry prize, for the best portfolio of three to five poems (maximum combined length: 120 lines). The d...
28th July 2016
Deadline nears for £1,000 Winchester poetry festival prize
Mimi Khalvati will be judging the new £1,000 Winchester poetry festival prize. The winners will be announced during this year’s festival, which runs from 7-9 October, and invited to read at a special ...
28th July 2016
Funny ha-ha or funny peculiar? Claire Dyer to judge Paradox competition
Claire Dyer will be judging the Paragram competition Paradox, for poetry, short prose, or comic poetry or prose. The organisers say: “Inherently ludicrous, wry or hard to believe, we felt this was the...
27th July 2016
Wanted: a short poem about love for £200 poetry book fair competition
Jo Shapcott will be joining organisers Chrissy Williams and Joey Connolly to judge this year’s £200 Poetry Book Fair competition for a short poem (maximum 14 lines) about love. The winner also gets a ...
21st July 2016
Deadline nears for £500 Ambit competition
TS Eliot prize winner Sarah Howe will be judging Ambit magazine’s £500 poetry competition. The deadline is 1 July. More details
PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ANDREW / WRITE OUT LOUD
20th July 2016
Deadline nears for £1,000 Ledbury poetry festival competition
Imtiaz Dharker will be judging the £1,000 Ledbury poetry festival competition. The deadline is 7 July. More details
29th June 2016
Greta Stoddart to judge £500 Wells literature festival poetry competition
Greta Stoddart will be judging the £500 Wells festival of literature poetry competition. The deadline is 30 June. More details
27th June 2016
Deadline nears for Manchester cathedral poetry competition
Jo Bell will be judging the £450 Manchester cathedral poetry competition, for poems that the organisers say should be “broadly religious or spiritual in nature”. The deadline is 24 June. More details ...
23rd June 2016
Deadline nears for £5,000 Troubadour poetry prize
Jane Yeh and Glyn Maxwell will be judging this year’s £5,000 Troubadour intenational poetry prize. The deadline is 21 June. More details
11th June 2016
Deadline nears for £1,000 McLellan poetry competition
David Constantine will be judging the £1,000 McLellan poetry competition, run by the Arran Theatre and Arts Trust as part of the annual McLellan arts festival. The deadline is 19 June. More details
9th June 2016
Deadline nears on £400 Havant poetry competition
Stephanie Norgate will be judging the £400 Havant literary festival poetry competition, on the theme of ‘The Wild’. This year’s competition includes a new award for the best poem by an unpublished po...
5th June 2016
Helen Mort to judge £500 Bare Fiction poetry prize
Helen Mort will be judging this year’s £500 Bare Fiction magazine poetry prize. The deadline – for separate flash fiction and short story categories, too – is 31 October. More details
PHOTOGRA...
4th June 2016
Deadline nears for Mslexia poetry competitions
Liz Lochhead, pictured, will be judging the £2,000 Mslexia women’s poetry competition, for poems of any length and in any style. There will also be a £500 prize for the best poem by a previously unpub...
29th May 2016
Alison Brackenbury to judge £200 Fire River Poets competition
Alison Brackenbury will be judging the £200 Fire River Poets open poetry competition. The deadline is 31 October. More details
25th May 2016
Poetry competition to celebrate life and work of Stanley Spencer is launched
A £2,500 international poetry completion has been launched to celebrate the 20th century English painter Stanley Spencer. The competition, part of events to mark the 50th anniversary in 2017 of the Co...
21st May 2016
Deadline nears for £300 South Bank Poetry competition
Mimi Khalvati will be judging the £300 South Bank Poetry magazine competition for poems about London. The deadline is 15 June. More details
19th May 2016
Deadline nears for £5,000 Bridport prize
The deadline is the end of May for the £5,000 Bridport poetry prize. This year's Bridport poetry judge, Ptgience Agbabi, said: “A poem is a spell, a potent, living language. Free verse or fixed form, ...
10th May 2016
Deadline nears for Red Shed poetry competition
John Foggin will be judging the £100 Red Shed open poetry competition. The deadline is 30 April. More details
27th April 2016
Deadline nears for £1,000 Poetry London competition
Sean O’Brien will be judging the £1,000 competition run by Poetry London magazine. The deadline is 2 May. More details
26th April 2016
Philip Gross to judge £600 Ware poetry competition
Philip Gross will be judging the £600 Ware open poetry competition. The deadline is 30 April 2016. More details
24th April 2016
Deadline nears for £600 Ver Poets competition
Andrew McMillan will be judging the £600 Ver Poets 50th anniversary open competition. The deadline is 30 April 2016. More details
20th April 2016
Martin Figura to judge new award for older poets
A new poetry award has been launched, for first collections by poets over the age of 40. The initiative has come from Judi Sutherland of The Stare’s Nest poetry website, who says of the Fledgling awar...
31st March 2016
Catherine Smith to judge Frogmore Papers prize
Catherine Smith will be judging the Frogmore poetry prize, sponsored by the Frogmore Press poetry magazine. The winner receives 250 guineas. The deadline is 31 May. More details
29th March 2016
Entry free for £200 poetry competition on politics
Publishers Holland Park Press have launched a £200 poetry and politics competition, and are looking for poetry on “any aspect of politics. Your poem can be about international politics or instead be a...
7th March 2016
Deadline extended for £250 Brittle Star poetry competition
George Szirtes and Jacqueline Gabbitas will be judging Brittle Star magazine’s £250 poetry competition. The deadline has been extended to 18 March. More details
2nd March 2016
Deadline nears for £500 Wenlock competition
Don Paterson will be judging the £500 Wenlock poetry festival competition. The long list of poems will be chosen by a panel of prize-winning, published poets including Wenlock’s festival poet in resid...
1st March 2016
Deadline nears for £500 Poets & Players competition
Jackie Kay will be judging Manchester’s Poets & Players £500 poetry competition. The deadline is 29 February. More details
PHOTOGRAPH: GREG FREEMAN / WRITE OUT LOUD
27th February 2016
Deadline nears for £500 York literature festival competition
Carole Bromley will be judging the £500 York literature festival / YorkMix poetry competition. The deadline is 14 February. More details
5th February 2016
Deadline nears for poetry competition in aid of cold weather shelters
George Szirtes will be judging the 2015-16 Camden Lumen poetry competition in aid of the Cold Weather Shelters project for the homeless. The winner have 20 pages of poetry published in a perfect bound...
3rd February 2016
Deadline day for £1,000 Kent and Sussex poetry competition
Anne-Marie Fyfe will be judging the £1,000 Kent and Sussex poetry society open competition. The deadline is 31 January 2016. More details
31st January 2016
Deadline nears for £500 Interpreter's House competition
Costa poetry prize winner Jonathan Edwards will be judging the £500 poetry competition run by The Interpreter’s House magazine. The deadline is 30 January 2016. More details
29th January 2016
Deadline nears for £200 Prole competition
Kate O’Shea will be judging the £200 Prole laureate competition, run by Prole literary magazine. The deadline is 31 January 2016. More details
28th January 2016
Liz Berry to judge Black Country Museum's poetry competition
Forward prize winning poet Liz Berry will be guest judge of the Dudley-based Black Country Living Museum’s poetry competition. The theme is earth and air, and the deadline is 29 July. More details
26th January 2016
Deadline nears for £250 Torriano poetry competition
Ann Drysdale will be judging the 2016 Torriano poetry competition. First prize is £250, and the closing date is 31 January 2016. More details
25th January 2016
Only one week left to swallow a mushroom and focus on folding a penny
Five words to build your poem around if you wish to enter the
3rd Ó Bhéal Five Words International Poetry Competition
January 19th – 26th 2016
penny swallow mushroom focus fold
Compe...
23rd January 2016
Reading Yeats is a good start...
Suggests YorkMix Poet-in-Residence Carole Bromley for those looking for inspiration for their 2016 entry to the The York Literature Festival/Yorkmix Poetry Competition. A York postcode is required to...
22nd January 2016
Deadline nears for £500 Teignmouth competition
Martyn Crucefix will be judging the £500 Teignmouth poetry festival competition. The deadline is 31 January 2016. More details
15th January 2016
Deadline extended into February for £600 Bristol poetry prize
WN Herbert will be the judge of the £600 Bristol poetry prize, organised by Poetry Can. The deadline has been extended until 12 February. More details
8th January 2016
John Evans to judge £500 Welsh poetry competition
John Evans will be judging the £500 Welsh poetry competition. The deadline is 29 May. More details
6th January 2016
Deadline nears for £1,000 Magma competition
Daljit Nagra will be judging the £1,000 Magma prizes for poems of 11-50 lines. A panel of Magma editors will judge the £1,000 prize for poems of up to 10 lines. The deadline is 18 January 2016. More d...
4th January 2016
