Guernsey International Poetry Competition 2016 has Ian McMillan as the judge. The competition is free for poets aged 12 to 17. (There is a charge for adults to enter.) Deadline for entries: 15 January 2016. Winners will be contacted by 15 March 2016. Winning entries will be displayed on one of the 33 buses in Guernsey.
More information (the page is still showing last year’s winners): http://guernseyliteraryfestival.com/images/pom-competition2016.pdf (If this link doesn’t work, click on the download link on the page: http://guernseyliteraryfestival.com/index.php/2015-04-07-09-46-01/poems-on-the-move)
Month: October 2015
Nine Arches Press – Magazine and Full Collection Submissions
Nine Arches Press has opened its bi-annual submissions window for poetry collections until 30 November 2015. Poets should have a record of previous publications, but should not have previously published a collection for the Nine Arches Press Debut series. Send a sample of twenty poems in one document.
Nine Arches is also looking for poems for its magazine, ‘Under the Radar’. Send up to six original, unpublished poems (or short fiction up to a max. 3,000 words) through the online submission system. Again, check the website for full details.
Please read the full information on the Nine Arches website before submitting: http://ninearchespress.com/submissions.html
TS Eliot Prize Writing Competition – Poetry Book Society
Deadline: Friday 11 December 2015.
Copied from the website (http://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/projects/15/):
The Poetry Book Society and emagazine invite students to step into the judges’ and poets’ shoes by writing a critical piece or a poem of their own in response to the work on the shortlist.
A chance for students to:
- Win £100, meet poets and be published
- Boost their CV or university statement
- Read the very best contemporary poetry
- Develop critical skills and confidence in reading poetry for pleasure
For the first time, this year, there are two choices of response:
EITHER
A 500 word critical piece on the 2 poems by your chosen poet, reflecting on what you particularly liked about them and why you think they should win.
OR
A poem of your own, ‘writing back’ to one of the poems you found particularly interesting. Your poem might take the same title, or use aspects of the form of the poem, or explore the same subject matter, or argue back with a view or angle that challenges or subverts ideas in the original.
How to apply
1. From Tuesday 3rd November 2015 – go to www.englishandmedia.co.uk/e-magazine, read the competition instructions and rules and follow the link to download the 20 poems.
2. Choose your poet and decide whether to write a critical piece or a poem as a response.
3. Get your entry in by Friday 11th December 2015.
(Un)natural Poetry Competition
Joint project between Nuffield Council on Bioethics and Apples and Snakes. http://nuffieldbioethics.org/project/naturalness/performance-poetry-collaboration/poetry-competition/
Deadline: Midnight on Sunday 1 November 2015. Open to poets living in the UK. The following is copied and pasted from the website:
We are looking for poems that explore, delve into and reveal the meaning of the words natural, unnatural, nature and similar words in the context of debates about science, technology and medicine.
What do people mean when they say genetic modification is wrong because it’s unnatural, or food that is natural is better for you?
We want to share these poems to engage others in the conversation, so we are looking for poets to perform their work at a public event in London on Monday 30th November 2015. The event will be filmed and shared online.
Amnesty International Poetry Competition
Copied and pasted from the Amnesty International website (http://join.amnesty.org/ea-campaign/action.retrievestaticpage.do?ea_static_page_id=4326):
Theme: ‘Silenced Shadows’
We are inviting Sri Lankans at home and abroad to take part in a poetry competition to mark the decades of enforced disappearances the country has experienced.
- Entries may be submitted in English, Tamil or Sinhala from any place in the world; you do not have to be a poet to enter.
- Writers must be Sri Lankans living in the country or who have emigrated in the past 20 years.
- All entrants must be 14 years of age or older when they submit their entry to the Competition. Entrants under the age of 18 must obtain written parental or guardian consent to enter and claim any prize. The Competition Administrators may ask the winner to provide proof of age.
Deadline 31 December 2015.
Respond – Human Rights Poetry Award 2015/2016
This is a free-to-enter competition, to highlight the plight of immigrants and refugees: http://www.uhrsn.org/respond-human-rights-poetry-award/ Entries must be in English. The deadline is 20 November 2015.
The following is copied from the UHRSN website: The Universal Human Rights Student Network (UHRSN) based in Vienna, Austria is organizing its very first human rights poetry contest. Given the plights refugees are facing on a daily basis and the current widespread media coverage of the so-called “refugee crisis in Europe” this year’s theme is
“Refugees and their message to Europe”
UHRSN is convinced that all people should have the right to a life lived with dignity free from fear, persecution and oppression. As widely reported, people in search of this life seeking asylum in European countries are in many instances denied just that – their fundamental rights. UHRSN also aims to utilize the power of poetry and the positive impact words can have to raise awareness for an issue that cannot be ignored. In this sense the poetry competition was established to provide refugees, migrants, students, sympathisers, etc. with an avenue
- to create thought-provoking poems by reflecting on their experiences, wishes, dreams and hopes
- to raise awareness amongst stakeholders, politicians, ordinary EU citizens, etc. on the fate of refugees in- and outside of Europe
- to demonstrate that #refugees are welcome and advocate for their rights
- to be creative
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