Competitions

As part of the Poetry Society's aim to engage people with poetry, we run a variety of competitions each year to encourage and reward excellence in poetry and to encourage and nurture poetic practice.

National Poetry Competition
Britain's top single poem competition since 1978, the National Poetry Competition is judged anonymously by a new set of judges each year. Top prize is £5000, second prize £1000, third prize £500 and 10 commendations of £50.

Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award
The Poetry Society's 'Young National Poetry Competition', this prize is open to poets ages 11-17 and is supported by the Foyle Foundation. Top fifteen winners aged 15-17 spend a week on an Arvon residency course with their judges.  Winners in the 11-14 age range can win a visit to their school by one of the Poetry Society's highly experienced team of poets who work in schools.

Corneliu M Popescu Prize for European Poetry Translation
Since 2003,  the Poetry Society  and the Raitu Charitable Family Foundation have been running this prize,  for collections of poetry translated from a European language into English. The prize is named after Corneliu M Popescu a young Romanian translator killed in an earthquake in 1977. The prize is £1000.

SLAMbassadors UK
Following on from the Rise Londonwide Slam Championship, which has been running successfully since 2002, we are now opening up our slam competition to young people in Liverpool. Slambassadors is the only UK professional development online slam, and is open to 12-18 year olds living in London and Liverpool. If you’re keen to develop your writing and stage skills, this is the competition for you.

Geoffrey Dearmer prize
A £400 award to the top poet yet to publish a first collection, for a poem published in Poetry Review Magazine each year.

The Hamish Canham Poetry Prize
A £300 award to the best poem by a Poetry Society member published in Poetry News each year.

Stanza Poetry Competition
An annual competition exclusively for Poetry Society members who are also Stanza members. The winner receives a free Poetry Prescription or a year's Membership and the top 3 will be published on our Stanza Competition page and featured in Poetry News. The winners are announced on National Poetry Day.