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Young poets

The Christopher Tower Poetry Competition 2019

Information

Closing date: 
1 March 2019
Entry: 
16-19 year-olds resident in the UK No entry fee
Prize: 
£5,000

The 18th Christopher Tower Poetry Competition, the UK's most valuable prize for young poets, has opened for entries, and this year students between 16-18 years of age resident in the UK can enter.

The closing date for entries is 1 March 2019.

Winners will be announced on 29 March 2019.  Read more

Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2018

Information

Closing date: 
31 July 2018
Entry: 
Open to all 13-17 year-olds worldwide No entry fee
Prize: 
Top 15 winners win mentoring and a life-changing residential writing course

The Poetry SocietyLively and well-presented UK site supporting poetry with 4,000 members internationally and some thoughtful content. www.poetrysociety.org.uk's Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is an opportunity for any young poet aged 11-17 to accelerate their writing career. Since it was founded in 1998 the Award has kick-started the career of some of today's most exciting new voices, such as Sarah Howe, Jay Bernard and Helen Mort.  Read more

The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2014

Information

Closing date: 
31 July 2014
Entry: 
Poets have to be aged 11 - 17 on the closing date to be eligible to enter, and the poem must not have been published elsewhere or have won any other competition. No entry fee
Prize: 
A week-long writing residential course at the Hurst Arvon Centre, Shropshire

The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is once again leading the call for new poetic talent amongst 11-17 year olds, with acclaimed poets Grace Nichols and Simon Barraclough at the helm! You have until midnight on the 31st July 2014 to enter your best poems to be in with the chance of be selected as one of the top 15 or 85 commended poets.  Read more

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19 August 2019 - What's new

August 2019
  • ‘I was often accused of having an overactive imagination as a child and I was an avid reader. I used to fib to my mum, saying I was going out to play with the other kids and actually having a book in my pocket. I'd built a den on the waste ground at the far end of the housing estate where I grew up and I would hide there and read.
  Read more

The Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry

Information

Closing date: 
15 September 2019
Entry: 
Open to unpublished poems from poets from all over the world writing in English £7 for the first poem, then £4 for every subsequent poem
Prize: 
First prize £5,000, second prize £2,000, third prize £1,000

The Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry is a major international award for poems embracing ecological themes.

The Prize aims to highlight the role poetry can play in raising awareness, gaining insight, and provoking concern for the ecological imperatives of our time.

First prize is £5,000, second prize is £2,000, and third prize is £1,000.  Read more

'An overactive imagination'

19 August 2019

‘I was often accused of having an overactive imagination as a child and I was an avid reader. I used to fib to my mum, saying I was going out to play with the other kids and actually having a book in my pocket. I'd built a den on the waste ground at the far end of the housing estate where I grew up and I would hide there and read.  Read more

'Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.'

— Stephen King