My Novel

My Novel

UK Poetry Competitions (currently 33)

Writers’ Forum Poetry Competition.  This monthly contest from the glossy magazine Writers’ Forum is for poems of up to 40 lines.
    Closing: Monthly.  Entries arriving too late for one month go forward to the next.
    Prize: £100.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Website: Click Here (prize details are on the Submissions Guidelines page).

Forward Press Animal Antics Competition.  This is for poems of up to 30 lines about your pet.  In addition to the poem, you are expected to send a photo (of the animal, not you, you vain fool).
    Closing: Unknown.
    Prize: £1,000.
    Entry Fee: None.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

WriteBuzz Writing Competitions.  WriteBuzz is a ‘literary hub’ for writers which runs regular writing competitions of various types.  Subscribers can enter free; others pay an entry fee.  Subscribers can also publish their work on the site.  Well worth a visit.
    Closing: Various dates.
    Prizes: Various.
    Entry Fee: Various. 
    Website: Click Here.

Envoi International Poetry Competition.  This one, from the well-known though small magazine Envoi, is for poems up to 40 lines.
    Closing: 20th February, June and October each year.
    Prize: £150, £100, £50.
    Entry Fee: £3.00 per poem or 5 for £12.00.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Whidbey Writing Competition.  This contest from Whidbey Writers Workshop in the USA is open worldwide and is for fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and writing for children or young adults.  Up to 1,000 words.  I should point out that they have a rather strange - and if I may say so lazy - way of selecting a winner for this one.  The judge reads submissions until he or she finds one that ‘knocks his/her socks off’.  Never mind that the next one might have divested the judge of his/her pants and woolly vest, the remaining entries are tossed aside without so much as a glance.  However, you can submit you entry again if it isn’t selected (try to get it in early, as entries are read in order of submission).
    Closing: Monthly.
    Prize: $50.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Authearth Writing Competitions.  I know nothing about Authearth except that it’s a new online community for readers, writers and cartoonists.  There are six categories in the monthly contest: Audio, Book Review, Book Chapter, Column Post, Poetry.  You post your entry on the site so that readers can vote for it (or not vote for it, as the case may be).
    Closing: Monthly.
    Prize: £50 each month.  There is an annual prize of £500 for the best overall winner.  In addition the best book published on Authearth in 2008 will win £1,000.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Website: Click Here.

And now a word from our sponsor.  Hello.  I’m Michael Shenton, creator of this website and author of Stiff Competition, winner of the Peter Pook Humorous Novel Competition.  People who are looking for me through search engines can remember just about everything about the website save its name and, more distressingly for me, my name. They search for ‘Peter Pook author’, ’the man who wrote Peter Pook’, ‘that bloke who won the cars’ and all manner of other odd things, but never ‘Michael Shenton’. The sole purpose of this site is to get my name known in the hope that one day dozens of people will buy my current novel and any others I manage to get published.  So would you all kindly make a note of it.  Michael Shenton.  Thank you.

Essex Poetry Festival 8th Open Poetry Competition.  This is another regular runner, as you will gather from the fact that it’s the 8th contest, but this year it offers something a little different - a fish competition, as indicated on the website by the line ‘Sole adjudicator: Catherine Smith’.  I have it on good authority that Bert Winkle, a rival fishmonger from the other side of town, will be the haddock adjudicator.  Entries for the poetry section should be no more than 40 lines.
    Closing: 30.8.08.
    Prizes: £500, £200, £100.  Runners-up - £10 in book tokens.
    Entry Fee: £3 each or £10 for five.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Write in France Competition.  This international contest has four categories: Poetry, Short Story, Screenplay and Play, any of which can be fictional or based on true-life events. 
    Closing: 30.8.08.
    Prizes (in each category): 100 euros plus a place on a weekend writing course in Bergerac, France.
    Entry Fee: 15 euros for the first, 5 euros thereafter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Utmost Christian Writers Poetry Contest.  This regular Canadian contest, which is open to all Christians, is for poems of up to 60 lines.  If you are not sure if you are a Christian, there is a handy guide in the Rules.  You must be an unpublished poet to enter, and this is also defined (web publication doesn’t count, nor does hardcopy publication without payment ... unless you had a book published and no one, not even your mother, bought it).
    Closing: 31.8.08.
    Prizes: 1st - $500.  2nd - $300.  3rd - $100.  In addition there are 15 Honourable Mention awards of $150.  Best Rhyming Poem - $250.  Best Traditional Rhyming Poem $100 (Christian theme required for this one).
    Entry Fee: $15.
     Comp Page: Click Here.

Aesthetica Creative Works Competition.  This one, from the cultural arts magazine Aesthetica, is for short stories of up to 2,000 words, poetry of up to 40 lines, and artwork.
    Closing: 31.8.08.
    Prizes: £500 in each category plus publication in the Aesthetica Annual.
    Entry Fee: £10.
    Comp Page: Click Here .

Salopean Annual Poetry Contest.  This one comes courtesy of the Salopian Poetry Society and is for poems of up to 36 lines.
    Closing: 31.8.08.
    Prize: £200, £100, £50.
    Entry Fee: £3.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Rhymers’ Poetry Competition .  Is it a crime to rhyme?  It is according to many poetry contest promoters, but not to Early Works Press, who are looking for rhyming poems of up to 40 lines.
    Closing: 31.8.08.
    Prizes: £50, £20.  There is also a £5 fee for winners and runners-up published on the website.
    Entry Fee : £3 each or p to 6 poems for £12.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Chroma International Queer Writing Competition.  Queer here is a reference to sexual orientation.  I wouldn’t be able to use the word in this context were it not for the fact that Chroma use it themselves, so I’m grateful to them for this small liberation in difficult and dangerous times.  Chroma is a magazine, incidentally.  The contest is for stories of up to 5,000 words and poems of up to 50 lines.
    Closing: 1.9.08.
    Prizes: £300, £150, £75.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Cheshire Prize for Literature.  This annual contest, which this year is for children’s literature, is open only to Cheshire writers.  A Cheshire writer is defined as someone who works or has worked, lives or has lived, studies or has studied, or was born in - Cheshire.  What about those who once passed through on a train or were brave enough to go on holiday there?  Excluded, alas.  The unexcluded can enter either a poem or a short story, aimed at children between 7 and 14 years.
    Closing: 1.9.08.
    Prizes:  1st - £2,000.  Other prizes with a total value of £750 will be distributed at the judges’ discretion.  The best entries will be published in a book by Chester Academic Press.
    Entry Fee: None.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

The Jo Cowell Award for Poetry 2008.  This one is from Ormskirk Writers and is for poems of up to 40 lines (line count to be indicated on entry).
    Closing: 19.9.08.
    Prizes: £150, £100, £50.
    Entry Fee: £3 for the first, £2 thereafter.
    Details/Entries (send sae): The Competition Co-ordinator, 14 Tower Hill. Ormskirk. Lancs, L39 2EF.

Dear Michael

Just to let you know I’ve been entering writing competitions for several years and this year came second in the 19^th Feile Filiochta International Poetry Competition. Hurrah! I probably wouldn’t have heard about it but for your site (and I still don’t know how to say it). I don’t even consider it one of my better poems – but it was free to enter. It just goes to show that literary competition judges have to be very subjective in the end, so it’s worth carrying on even when you don’t feel that confident. Anyway, I’m off to spend my winnings of 500 euros (that’s very nearly £375 in real money). Keep up the good work!
     Here’s a link to the poem that won the prize
     All the best - Clare Kirwan

Firstwriter International Poetry Competition.  Any style for this annual verse contest ... although there is a line limit of 30, so if your style is ‘rambling epic’ you’re out of luck.
    Closing : 1.10.08.
    Prizes: 1st - £500 and some writing software.  2nd - £100.  Ten runners-up receive commendations in lieu of a decent prize.
    Entry Fee: £3 per poem.  Discounts for 3+.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Eric Gregory Awards.  This one from the Society of Authors is open only to British poets aged under 30, resident ‘in the United Kingdom or Northern Ireland’.  Spot the deliberate mistake.  It is for published or unpublished volumes of poetry.
    Closing: 31.10.08.
    Prizes: There is a prize fund of £24,000.
    Entry Fee: None - free to enter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Ragged Raven Poetry Competition.  This annual contest is is unusual in that it is for poems of any length on any subject.  At last, a chance to really expatiate your theme - and of course to send the judges to sleep.
    Closing: 31.10.08.
    Prizes: 1st - £300.   Runners-up (4) - £50.
    Entry Fee: £3 each, £10 for four.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Poetry Society National Poetry Competition.  This well-known contest, according to the website, attracts entries from Nantwich to Nairobi.  I’m not sure why people in Nantwich send their entries to Nairobi, but it may be because it’s cheaper, as no one cashes the cheques.  The contest carries a good deal of prestige in the poetry world.  However, the organisers have not been able to show us anyone who has won it and become an international literay giant, so they have used a photo of Audrey Hepburn instead, a chorus girl who never entered the contest but who was discovered and found fame as an actress.  Well, same sort of thing, innit?  To comply with the rules, you must curb your creative enthusiasm at 40 lines.
    Closing: 31.10.08.
    Prizes: £5,000, £1,000, £500.
    Entry Fee: £5 for the first, £3 thereafter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Speakeasy Open Creative Writing Competition.  Speakeasy is a Milton Keynes writers’ group named, as I point out each year, after the sleazy American grog dens of the 1920s.  However, their spokesman has denied any impropriety at their meetings.  Apparently they sip Earl Grey tea and talk in polite terms about the finer points of writing.  What a disappointment.  The contest is, as usual, for poems of no more than 60 lines and stories of up to 2,100 words.
    Closing: 31.10.08.
    Prizes: £125, £50, £25 in each category.
    Entry Fee: £4 for poetry. £5 for stories.  Discounts apply for multiple entries.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Leaf Books Poetry Competition.  This is for poems of any length on any subject.
    Closing: 31.10.08.
    Prizes: 1st - £200.   Runner-up - ten pocket-sized Leaf Books.
    Entry Fee: £3 each, £10 for four.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Carillon Magazine Poetry Competition.  This is for poems of between 15 and 20 lines on the theme of Silence.  Is there any such thing?  Even if that idiot next door turned his stereo off for five minutes you still wouldn’t have silence.  It would only seem that way.  There’d still be the clock ticking, the whirling fan in your computer, the sound of your breathing.  I think real silence would be quite scary.
    Closing: 1.11.08.
    Prizes: £80, £40, £20, £10.
    Entry Fee: £2 each or £3 for three.
    Comp Page: Click Here .

Segora Open Poetry Competition.  Here’s another poetry contest from French-based International Writers’ Block.  It is for poems of up to 40 lines on any subject.
    Closing : 14.11.08.
    Prize: £100, £30, £15.
    Entry Fee: £3.50 for one, £6 for two, £8 for three ... and so on.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Mizzmouse Poetry Competition.  Unusually, this one is for poems that rhyme and scan.  Proper poetry, in other words.  But don’t panic: you only have to manage this archaic task for a maximum of 20 lines.
    Closing : 29.11.08.
    Prize: £50.  The winner will be published on the website.
    Entry Fee: £1.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

New Writer International Competition.  This contest has three categories: Fact (essays, articles, interviews); Fiction (short stories, serials, novellas); Poetry (single poems and collections).  Factual items, which must have a writing-related theme, should be no more than 2,000 words.  The short stories can run to 4,000 words, while 20,000 words is allowed for novellas.  Curtail your poetic fancies at 40 lines for the single poems and submit between 6 and 10 poems in collections (no line limit for these).
    Closing: 30.11.08.
    Prizes: Fact - £150, £100, £50.   Fiction - £300, £200, £100 (short stories); £300 (novella).  Poetry - £100, £75, £50 for singles, £300, £200, £100 for collections.
    Entry Fees: Fact - £5.   Fiction - £5 for short stories, £15 for serial/novella.  Poetry - £5 for singles, £12 for collections.
    Comp Page: Click Here .

James W Hackett International Haiku Award.  If you’re wondering about the line limit for this one, better move on.
    Closing: 30.11.08.
    Prizes: There are two first prizes of £70 and a year’s subscription to The British Haiku Society.
    Entry Fee: £3 ($6) for up to three entries, £1 ($2) thereafter.
    Website: Click Here.

Cafe Writers Poetry Competition.  Poems of up to 40 lines for this one from Cafe Writers of Norfolk who, despite their name, actually meet in a bar, in view of which you won’t be surprised to learn that, according to their website, their meetings present ‘opportunities to read from the floor’.
    Closing: 30.11.08.
    Prizes: £750, £300, £150.
    Entry Fee: £4 each, £10 for three and £2 each thereafter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Seafield Writing Competition.  This is for poems of up to 30 lines and short stories of up to 2,000 words, on the theme of: Myself when young did ...  Title only to appear on the entry.  Put your name and address on a separate sheet together with the entry title.
    Closing: 30.11.08.
    Prizes: £100, £50 in each category.
    Entry Fee: £5 (cheques to: Seafield Publishing).
    Entry Address: Seafield Publishing, Flat 2, 83 Greens Place, South Shields, NE33 2AQ.

Petra Kenny Poetry Competition.  This annual international contest is for poems of up to 80 lines.  There are three categories: General, Comic and Young Poets (14-18).   Alison Chisholm is among this year’s judges.
    Closing: 1.12.08 (USA: 31.12.08).
    Prizes: £1,000, £500, £250, plus an engraved Royal Brierley crystal vase.  Runners-up (3) - £125.  Comic Verse category - £250.   Young Poets category - £250, £125.
    Entry Fee: £3, US$5, Can$7.
    Comp Page: Click Here .

Creative Competitor Humorous Poetry Competition.  This is for humorous poems of up to 40 lines.  Any theme or form.
    Closing: 6.12.08.
    Prizes : £70, £30.
    Entry Fee: £2.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Tampa Review Prize for Poetry.  For this US contest, from the literary magazine Tampa Review, you submit a manuscript of between 60 and 100 pages.  That’s one hell of a long poem.  Oh, I see - it can be numerous poems; a whole bookful in fact.  The mission of Tampa Review is to invigorate contemporary literary and visual arts.  I just thought I’d mention that.
    Closing: 31.12.08.
    Prize: $2,000 plus hardback publication.
    Entry Fee: $25.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Fellows’ Poetry Prize.  ‘Which fellows?’ you might ask, and the answer is, I suppose, the ones at Leicester University’s English Association, from whence the competition comes.  Poems of up to 30 lines are required.  The winner will be published in the English Association Newsletter and on the website.
    Closing: 31.12.08.
    Prizes: £500, £300, £200.
    Entry Fee: £10 for the first, £5 thereafter.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

Cardiff International Poetry Competition 2009.  A poem of up to 50 lines could earn you some useful spending money in this annual event, but they do get rather a lot of entries, so don’t book that celebratory cruise just yet.  For those of you who care about such things, the contest carries a certain amount of prestige in the snooty world of poetry.  All winners will be published in The New Welsh Review .  Judges this year are Ian McMillan and Kurt Heinzelman.
    Closing: 30.1.09.
    Prizes: 1st - £5,000.  2nd - £500.   3rd - £250.  Runners-up (5) - £50.
    Entry Fee: £5.
    Comp Page: Click Here.

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Notes: Unless otherwise stated in the rules, poetry should be single-spaced.  It is sometimes the case that your name shouldn’t appear on the manuscript. Check the rules.  If you put your name on there after being told not to, you’re out.  Don’t use coloured paper or fancy fonts.  The colour and pizzazz to make you stand out from the crowd should be in the words.  Plain white A4 80gsm paper is the stuff to use, with plain black typing or print.  My preferred font for poetry manuscripts printed on an inkjet or laser printer is Gill Sans in 12 point (13 if I’m not pressed for space).  This gives a clear, dark print that’s easy to read.  Although publishers and agents sometimes demand the feeble Courier font, which comes out on my printers like something produced by a typewriter with an antique ribbon, I’ve never never known competition organisers to express any preference.  But as always, check the rules.  Finally, write on one side of the sheet only - unless asked to put your address, etc, on the back.
 

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Disclaimer

For other types of writing competitions, see the full list of literary contests on my Writing Comps page.