Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition

To celebrate, in partnership with the Poetry School, we’ve made three sets of discussion points (one for each of last year’s top three poems) available from our website. We hope that writing groups and classes might enjoy looking at the poems in more detail.

Each year the competition throws three winning poets into the spotlight. “There was a surge of interest,” says 2011’s second prize winner Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch. “Invitations to read at a variety of festivals followed including Ledbury, Cheltenham and the Penfro Book Festival in Pembrokeshire.” And, as all poems are made anonymous before they are judged, established poets and new voices compete on a level field.

Listings / e-newsletter copy: Established in 1978, the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition is one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious poetry contests. The judges this year are Vicki Feaver, W.N. Herbert and Nick Laird. Winners include both established and emerging poets, and for many the prize has proved an important career milestone. The prizes are: £5,000 for the overall winner, £2,000 for the second, £1,000 for the third, with seven commendations of £100.

Entry fees

£6 for your first poem
£3 for each subsequent entry in the same submission.
FREE second entry for Poetry Society members (including those joining now).

The deadline is 31 October 2013.

Visit the website for details. Enter online or download an entry form at

http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/npc/

 

Suggested tweet: The @PoetrySociety National Poetry Competition is accepting entries! £5,000 first prize http://bit.ly/pdWxA 

Downloadable image file here (open link and either copy and paste the image, or right click the image and select ‘Save picture as…’).