Deadline: August 24, 2022
Entry fee: £6
About the competition
The Ledbury Poetry Festival takes place over ten days each July. It is the biggest and best poetry festival in the UK, featuring poets from all over the world. There are live readings, performances, workshops, open mics, music, exhibitions, films, family events, street events, a slam and much more.
The first prize for the competition is £1,000 cash and, in a new partnership with Arvon, a week’s poetry course. Arvon is the UK’s leading creative writing charity with a wide range of residential and online writing courses. The winner will have one calendar year from the prize being announced to claim either a residential or online week of their choice.
The competition is international, open to poets writing in the English language.
The competition has been an important first step in many poets’ careers. In addition to these prizes, the winner is invited to read their poems at the internationally renowned Ledbury Poetry Festival.
Competition guidelines
- Poems must be received by Wednesday 24th August 2022 at 23:59pm BST.
- All poems must be the original work of the entrant and should not have been previously published, broadcasted, or accepted for publication by a magazine.
- The length of each poem must not exceed 40 lines.
- All applications must be submitted online through the entry form on this page. Please submit all poems in a single Word or PDF file. Each poem must start on a new page in the document.
- The competitor’s name must NOT appear in the poems or in the document file.
- Copyright remains with the author, but Ledbury Poetry reserves the right to have entries performed at the Festival, on radio, TV, or stage, published on the internet, in an anthology or used for publicity purposes at any stage in the future.
- An automated acknowledgement of the entry will be sent (please check Spam or Junk folders if you don’t see one).
- The decision of the judge is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- Ledbury Poetry reserves the right to withhold prizes if such an action is justified.
- Entries not complying with competition rules will be disqualified.
- Submit your entry here.
