Daljit Nagra to judge Kent and Sussex poetry contest
Daljit Nagra will be judging Kent and Sussex Poetry Society’s open poetry competition, which has a first prize of £1,000. Entry is £5 per poem, or £4 each for three or more poems, and the closing date is 31 January 2013. More details
20th December 2012
Best foot forward: dance-themed arts group offers £1,000 prize
Flamingofeather, a London-based multi-media arts organisation, is launching a poetry competition to raise money to develop its dance work, including a community ballet company for people aged 55 and over. The deadline is 15 March 2013 for poems of up to 120 lines, with main prizes of £1,000, £500...
20th December 2012
Can you dig out your 10 best poems?
Ten poems are all you need to enter the first stage of the Poetry School and Pighog Press poetry pamphlet competition. After initial judging, shortlisted poets will be asked to submit complete pamp...
16th December 2012
Deadline nears for Magma prizes
There’s still time to enter the Magma poetry competition; the deadline is 16 December. There are two prizes. The judge’s prize for a poem of 11-80 lines will be awarded by the national poet of Wal...
14th December 2012
Motion and Clarke to judge £5,000 Cardiff competition
The former poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion, and the national poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke will be judging the £5,000 2013 Cardiff International poetry competition. Its deadline is 15 February 2013...
2nd December 2012
Deadline nears for Cinnamon's first collection competition
The 30 November deadline is fast approaching for the Cinnamon Press first poetry collection competition. The winning author has his/her poetry collection published with Cinnamon Press and receives ...
25th November 2012
Stage or page? Two chances to win at Wirral Ode Show contest
Does it work on the page – as well as on the stage? Wirral Ode Show is staging its annual competition on Thursday 15 November, with two parallel contests.
Participating poets are asked to provi...
14th November 2012
Mid-November deadline for Iota Shots pamphlet competition
The 19 November deadline is approaching for submissions to the Iota Shots short poetry pamphlet competition. Poets are invited to submit between 12 and 16 pages of poetry – it could be a series of ...
3rd November 2012
George Szirtes to judge Poetry Book Society's student competition
George Szirtes will be judging the Poetry Book Society’s first student poetry competition. It’s free to enter – and although entrants have to be members of the PBS, that’s free too if you’re a stud...
3rd November 2012
Ian Duhig to pick £1,000 Cafe Writers winner
Ian Duhig will be the sole judge of Norwich-based Cafe Writers’ £1,000 open poetry competition, which has a 30 November deadline. Second prize is £300, 3rd is £150, and there are six commended pr...
29th October 2012
National Poetry Competition: last call for entries
There’s still time - just – to enter the £5,000 National Poetry Competition. The deadline is 31 October. Ok, there will be thousands of entries, but the judging is anonymous – they don’t know who y...
29th October 2012
Deadline nears for £1,000 Crashaw first collection prize
The 31 October deadline is fast approaching for entries for the £1,000 Crashaw prize, an international annual prize for a first collection of poetry. Entrants must not have had a volume of poetry p...
28th October 2012
Closing date nears for Northern Ireland's eulogy contest
The 26 October closing date is approaching for the Funeral Services of Northern Ireland poetry competition, launched earlier this month on National Poetry Day. The organisers are looking for poems ...
18th October 2012
What's brewing? Fire River Poets competition
The deadline is 31 October for Fire River Poets open poetry competition, with prizes £100, £75 and £50 and an invitation to read at the Brewhouse, Taunton. The competition will be judged by Anthony...
4th October 2012
Draycott and O'Donoghue to judge Troubadour prize
The deadline is 15 October for this year’s £2,500 Troubadour international poetry prize. Judges Jane Draycott and Bernard O’Donoghue will read all poems submitted. Second prize is £500, third priz...
23rd September 2012
Poetry collection contest pays tribute to magazine editor
The closing date is 28 September for a poetry collection contest in memory of magazine editor Geoff Stevens, being staged by publisher Indigo Dreams. Geoff, who edited Purple Patch magazine for 35 ...
23rd September 2012
Gardeners' World judge offers top tips
A poetry competition judge has taken the unusual step of advising potential entrants how they might have a better chance of winning. Sarah Langan, one of Gardeners’ World magazine’s four poetry com...
19th September 2012
Simon Armitage to judge Poetry Business book and pamphlets
This year’s Poetry Business International Book and Pamphlet competition will be judged by Simon Armitage, with the deadline 29 November 2012 (post entries) and 1 December 2012 (online entries). Ent...
3rd September 2012
Write Out Loud's Olympics competition: voting ends tonight
Vorting ends tonight in the competition to find your favourite WOL Olympics poem. We've had a remarkable tally of entries. Let's hope we'ved had a remarkable tally of votes, too! Listed below are t...
31st August 2012
Antony Dunn to judge Live Canon competition
Antony Dunn, a regular tutor for the Poetry School and Arvon, and a published poet with three collections, will be judging the Live Canon poetry competition, which has a top prize of £1,000. The de...
25th August 2012
Why not try for poetry's glittering prizes?
Two of the most glittering prizes in the poetry world are up for grabs again. The National Poetry Competition, first prize £5,000, is being judged this year by Vicki Feaver, WN Herbert, and Nick La...
13th August 2012
Olympics poems: now it's your turn!
Just reminding you that Write Out Loud has another, home-grown poetry competition, launched by our own Graham Sherwood, with the Olympics the theme. All you need to do is blog a poem or poems, and ...
31st July 2012
Canal poet Winston is angling for waterways poems
Rochdale canal’s poet-in-residence, Winston Plowes, is fishing for poems – 92 of them, in fact - and hopes Write Out Loud’s poets can help. Winston is curating a collection of poems – one for every...
24th July 2012
Poetry contest for Havant literary festival
There’s a £200 prize for the winner of Havant literary festival’s open poetry competition. The judge is Naomi Foyle. The closing date is 1 September, and the entry fee £4 per poem. More details
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17th July 2012
It's on: Stirling's poetry contest
The closing date for Off the Stanza, a poetry competition to tie with the Off the Page Stirling book festival, is 31 July. Entrants are restricted to three poems each, with a maximum cost for three...
9th July 2012
Ryedale contest for poets in Yorkshire, Humber, and Teesside
The closing date is 15 September for a poetry competition open to residents of Yorkshire, the Humber and Teesside. The fee for the Ryedale poetry competition is £2 per poem and there are prizes of ...
1st July 2012
Poetry contest to celebrate Preston Guild
Preston Poets’ Society are inviting entries for a competition celebrating the Preston Guild, a historic event dating back to 1179 and marked in the town every 20 years. The competition is to write ...
25th June 2012
Closing date nears for Ted Hughes contest
The 6 July closing date for entries for the Elmet poetry prize in the Calderdale Ted Hughes writing competition is coming up fast. The judge is Kathleen Jamie and first prize is £300. Each entry sh...
24th June 2012
Religious and spiritual poems wanted for cathedral competition
Not much time left to enter Manchester Cathedral’s 14th International Religious Poetry Competition, with a first prize of £450. Closing date is 29 June. Poems should be broadly religious or spiritu...
24th June 2012
Pascale Petit to judge Essex poetry competition
Pascale Petit is the judge of this year’s Essex open poetry competition. Its closing date is 30 July. The top prize is £1,000, with second £250, third £100, and three runner-up prizes of £25. The p...
24th June 2012
Great expectations for Portico's poetry contest
A poetry competition with Charles Dickens as the theme has been launched by Manchester’s Portico library. The deadline for entries is 31 July, and there will be two awards; the Portico poetry prize...
14th June 2012
When you're in a hole ... poets wanted to help opencast mining fight
A poetry contest has been launched as part of a campaign to save an area of south Wales from opencast mining. The deadline is 30 June, and entry costs only £1. Entrants have a chance of getting a ...
14th June 2012
Only connect: Paragram wants submissions for anthology
A group of Surrey writers are widening the net and asking for submissions for their next anthology, with the theme Connections. Paragram welcome any genre of poetry or prose: mystery, literary, hum...
12th June 2012
Closing date nears for Myslexia's £2,000 contest
The closing date is 18 June for Myslexia’s £2,000 women’s poetry competition, to be judged by the national poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke. The entry fee is £7 for up to three poems of any length, an...
11th June 2012
Poems back in the shops - apologies for the buggeration
The software glitch should be over now and you are OK to upload your poems in shops again. We have extended the deadline until the morning to give you chance to upload any final poems for the Bolto...
9th June 2012
Jackie Kay to judge £1,000 Arran poetry contest
Poet and novelist Jackie Kay is to judge the McClellan poetry prize, which is awarded in memory of Robert McLellan, the poet, playwright and short story writer who spent his working life in High Co...
1st June 2012
Last calls for poetry contests
Get your skates on to the postbox. It’s the last call for Wirral festival of Firsts poetry contest. The deadline is 1 June. What’s more, the closing date for the renowned Bridport poetry competitio...
27th May 2012
Deadline nears for Warrington poetry contest
The 18 May deadline is only a few days away for a competition with health, wealth and happiness as the themes. Well Warrington Network’s poetry and short story competition will be judged by prize-w...
14th May 2012
Step up for the Bards of New Brighton poetry contest
New Brighton Bards are staging a competition night on Monday 14 May when poets will be invited to perform for cash prizes and magazine subscriptions. The contest takes place at the Magazine hotel, ...
13th April 2012
Wigan festival's poetry slam tonight
There’s a poetry slam at the Tudor House hotel in Wigan on 12 April, as part of Leigh and Wigan’s Words festival, which lasts from 9-21 April. This year’s slam will have a different format with poe...
12th April 2012
Give it a go! Cinnamon offers chance to have your first collection published
Could your first poetry collection be selected for the shortlist of the Forward prize for best first collection? The next deadline to enter a competition for a Cinnamon Press poetry collection awar...
31st March 2012
Leeds Peace Poetry's Olympics truce contest
Leeds Peace Poetry competition is inviting entries on an interpretation of the theme of Olympic truce. The concept of the Olympic truce was established as part of the ancient Greek Olympics, when a...
21st March 2012
RSPB and The Rialto Nature poetry competition
There's still plenty of time to enter a Nature poetry competition organised by the RSPB and The Rialto poetry magazine. The deadline is 30 April 2012 – and according to the Rialto, which recently ...
18th March 2012
Wirral's Festival of Firsts poetry contest
Wirral Festival of Firsts open poetry competition is inviting entries and has expanded its categories for its second year. There are now three: Open, a poem on any subject, no more than 40 lines. F...
18th March 2012
Meet the challenge: charity anthology to raise disabilities awareness
A fund-raising project in the north-west called Unique Driven Determined is planning an anthology of poetry about human differences and qualities, disabilities and impairments - and how people deal...
14th March 2012
Neil Astley to judge Poetry London competition
Neil Astley, founding editor of Bloodaxe Books, is this year’s judge of the Poetry London competition, now in its 13th year. The deadline is 1 May. First prize is £1,000, second £500, and third £20...
7th March 2012
Top prize of £300 in Welsh poetry contest
The International Welsh poetry competition 2012 is open for submissions, with a deadline of 27 May. This year’s judge is Welsh writer and environmentalist John Evans. First prize is £300, second £...
7th March 2012
Liver Bards seek Liverpool poems
Liverpool poetry group the Liver Bards is looking for poems about the city for its free-to-enter poetry competition and publication in an anthology.
The Liver Bards, who meet at the Ship and Mi...
29th February 2012
£3,000 e-book poetry prize competition
Poetic Republic has launched a new type of poetry competition, with participants as the judges and the resulting anthology being an e-book in various formats such as Kindle, iPad, etc.
Each pie...
22nd February 2012
Interesting competition from Templar
An unusual approach, and one to be welcomed perhaps: poems can be previously published and submitted simultaneously elsewhere in this interesting Templar competition. This means you can submit you...
22nd February 2012
Cardiff poetry competition comes with £5,000 first prize
Sinead Morrissey and Patrick McGuinness are the judges for this year’s Cardiff International Poetry Competition. The deadline is 2 March, and the first prize is £5,000, for a poem up to 50 lines. E...
13th February 2012
Welcome to Britain theme for Buxton competition
Welcome to Britain is the theme for the Buxton festival poetry competition, deadline 6 April, in recognition of the Queen’s diamond jubilee and the Olympics. The organisers say: “Use this theme to...
11th February 2012
Helping the homeless: poetry contest that makes a difference
There are just a couple of days left to enter a competition that is helping to keep open two London cold weather shelters in the Camden and King's Cross areas. In its first year the Lumen/Camden po...
11th February 2012
Jane Draycott and Bernard O'Donoghue to judge Troubadour prize
Jane Draycott and Bernard O’Donoghue will judge this year’s Troubadour poetry prize, deadline 15 October 2012. The prizes are 1st £2,500, 2nd £500, 3rd £250, plus 20 prizes of £20 each, plus a spr...
9th February 2012
Prole magazine looks for new laureate
Young northern poet Andrew McMillan will judge Prole magazine’s Laureate poetry competition. Its closing date is 1 March. Prole is looking for a poet who challenges, entertains and whose work appea...
6th February 2012
Country house's peaceful approach to poetry contest
“There is no joy but calm” – a line from Tennyson’s The Lotos-Eaters – is the theme of the Words by the Water/Mirehouse poetry competition, closing date 10 February.
Mirehouse historic house an...
26th January 2012
WOL competition: and the winner is ...
What strange beasts poetry competitions are! I set this one not knowing quite what to expect; not too many rules – an upbeat subject and the stipulation that it shouldn’t be written from a first pe...
24th January 2012
Wildlife theme for Barn Owl Trust competition
Wildlife and conservation is the theme of the Barn Owl Trust open poetry competition, deadline 16 January. All profits from the competition will provide care for casualty birds. The judges are Rebe...
1st January 2012
