Deadline: January 31, 2023
Entry fee: €5
About the competition
Every Tuesday at 12pm (Irish time) from 12th April 2022 – 31st January 2023, five words will be posted on this competition page. Entrants will have one week to compose and submit one or more poems which include all five words given for that week.
The shortlisted poems and winning entry will be published in Five Words Vol XVI – the anthology of five word poems to be launched at the same event. A shortlist of twelve poems including the overall winner will be announced by the first week of March 2023.
Competition guidelines
- Entry is open to all countries. Poems cannot exceed 50 lines in length (including line breaks), and must include all five words listed for the week.
- A modicum of poetic license is acceptable. As long as the original spelling is intact, you’re welcome to extend, pluralise or even split any word to appear across two adjacent words, even if its original meaning becomes altered.
- Poems should be newly written, during this 7-day period. There is no limit to volume of entries, although each payment and submission should be made separately.
- Download your submission form here.
- Read the whole guideline and submit your entry here.
