2023 International Poetry Competition
£1000 first prize for a single poem
Guest Judge: Inua Ellams MBE
We are delighted to announce the long and shortlists for the competition.
The winner will be announced at our anthology launch event on 12th December. All are welcome, register here.
And all 50 longlisted poems will be published in our 2023 anthology. Pre-order your copy here: /store
SHORTLIST
The Pig and the Fennel | Oenone Thomas |
Bhujangasana | Jess Thayil |
Some things I do no know | Arthur Allen |
To the Kilburn Horse, seen from the Leeds to Newcastle train | Jane Burn |
Busy Day at the Foodbank | Martyn Crucefix |
A part of me is still hoping you faked it | Laura Theis |
The Dark in Which I’ve Lately Dwelt | Justin Hunt |
bread and roses | Deborah Finding |
How the wind will sing of us | Mike Barlow |
A Brief History of Modern Music | Partridge Boswell |
K.I.A. | Anastasia Taylor-Lind |
Self Portrait as my Diary | Caleb Parkin |
Cutting my grandmother's hair | Yas Necati |
Xander | Dillon Jaxx |
How Number Four Grandma Came to Join the Household | Pey Oh |
LONGLIST
My Promotions | Andrew George | |
Dark | Helen Kay | |
Family Slices | Ken Evans | |
A Zebra | Sharon Black | |
translate this | Lydia Harris | |
The Day the Rains Came | Doreen Hinchliffe | |
She offers her defence | Robin Houghton | |
Without which | Jane Routh | |
Ode to Soviet Space dogs | Sue Burge | |
The Coursing: New Year's Day | Ann Leahy | |
Sinai | Brandon Bennett | |
The Red Handbag | Karis Williamson | |
Own Brand | Anne Casey | |
The art of waiting | Denise O'Hagan | |
Systemic Lupus | Vasiliki Albedo | |
Quartet | Jackie Bennett | |
The Cervine Assumption | Pauline Rowe | |
Nightsingers - a conversation poem. | Dave Wynne-Jones | |
Daughter, you have been carrying your brother on your back all night | Pam Thompson | |
Feeling Good & Functioning Well | Alexandra Melville | |
The Knight's Tale | Lisa Kelly | |
Taking ‘The Cardinal’ from Washington to Chicago | Lydia Kennaway | |
King Crab | Josh Hallam | |
Mourning Pace | Beatriz Echeverri | |
As you spread and soar | NJ Hynes | |
The Half of It | Sophie Caldecott | |
The High Priestess | Golnoosh Nour | |
The Soap Dishes in the Shower Block at Alcatraz | Isabella Mead | |
The Unreeving | Matt Hohner | |
Jouvay | Allyson Weekes | |
The Oak Planter | Yasmin Inkersole | |
Writing letters | Pamela Crowe | |
Voices | Isobel Dixon | |
I’ve given up on love and am going to the moon | Elizabeth Gibson | |
Ghazal: First Generation | Jill Abram | |
When you sing Jerusalem | Mark Fiddes |
Inua Ellams MBE
Born in Nigeria in 1984, Inua Ellams is writer and curator. He is a cross disciplinary artist, an internationally touring performer, a poet, playwright, screenwriter, graphic artist & designer. His published books of poetry include Candy Coated Unicorns and Converse All Stars, Thirteen Fairy Negro Tales, The Wire-Headed Heathen, #Afterhours, and The Actual. His first play The 14th Tale was awarded a Fringe First at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival. His plays include Barber Shop Chronicles (National Theatre and world tour), Three Sisters (National Theatre) and The Half-God of Rainfall (The Kiln). He is currently touring Search Party, An Evening With An Immigrant and working on several commissions across stage and screen.
He lives and works from London, where he founded and curates the Midnight Run, The R.A.P Party, Poetry +Film / Hack, and other live events. He is an ambassador for The Ministry of Stories and The London Library, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Royal Society of Arts, and board members of The Poetry Translation Centre, Complicite Theatre, The Royal Society of Literature and Cheltenham Literature Festival. In 2023, He was honoured with an MBE for Services To The Arts.
Full Ts&Cs can be found on the submittable page.