National Poetry Competition

The National Poetry Competition 2023 is now closed for entries

National Poetry Competition 2023 winners

The National Poetry Competition 2023 winners were announced on 25th March at Art Workers’ Guild, London. 

Judges: Jane Draycott, Will Harris, Clare Pollard Find out more about them here.

The winners are…
1st Prize
Imogen Wade, ‘The Time I Was Mugged In New York City’
2nd Prize
Fawzia Muradali Kane, ‘Eric’
3rd Prize
Rency Jumaoas Raquid, ‘Like Her’

Commended

Anna Selby, ‘Liberty Caps’
A.V. Bridgwood, ‘You have eaten the patriarchy’
george graves, ‘crying at video’
Harriet Jae, ‘God has M.E.’
Katie O’Pray, ‘Sertraline Fever’
Jack Nicholls, ‘To Do’
Madeleine Wurzburger, ‘Oranges’

And congratulations to the 2023 longlist

Matt Abbott, Nicole Adabunu, Tomi Adegbayibi, Sanah Ahsan, Luke Allan, Audrey Ardern-Jones, Polly Atkin, Tiffany Atkinson, Becky Balfourth, Emily Barker, Sarah Barr , AJ Baumel, Ayomide Bayowa, Sharon Black, Adrian Blackledge, Paul Blake, Leo Boix, Claire Booker, Tim Bradford, Paula Brancato, Izzy Brittain, Michael Brown, Kizziah Burton, Michael Chang, Alexandra Chand, Kate Clanchy, Geraldine Clarkson, Michael Coley-Smith, Leyla Colpan, Courtney Conrad, Michael Connaughton, Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana, Ishan Costello, Jenny Danes, Caroline Davies, Chantale Davies, Annie Davison, Hélène Demetriades, Diepreye , Jack Dunlop, Ruby Eastwood, Shakeema Edwards, Geraint Ellis, Richard Evans, Marie-Louise Eyres, Pascal Fallas, Tamsyn Farr, Cleo Felstead, Mark Fiddes, Victoria Gatehouse , Sarah Gibbons, Kiara Gilbert, Hannah Godden, Rich Goodson, Katie Griffiths, Fee Griffin, Bethany Handley, Susannah Hart, Emily Harrison, Jack Haworth, Erica Hesketh, Sam Hickford, Susan E Holland, Sarah Hulme, Sharan Hunjan, Kirsten Irving, Helen Ivory, Molly Jackson, Harriet Jae, Bradley James, Emma Jeremy, Kirsty Jones, Lydia Kennaway, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa, Logan Klutse, Kate Kuhlmann, Vanessa Lampert, Clara-Laeila Laudette, Emma Lee, Hershel Lidan, Marilyn Longstaff, lisa luxx , Kevin MacAlan, Ewan Mackinnon, David McCormack, Paul McMahon, Clive McWilliam, Maurane , David May, Alex Mepham, Hannah Morrison, JLM Morton, Elias Noren, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Kathryn O’Borne, Rebecca O’Connor, Neil O’Hara, Ann Pilling, Felicity Plunkett, Sarah Powell, Wendy Pratt, Mallory Profeta, Rose Proudfoot, Victoria Pugh, Amanda Quaid, Helen Quah, GS Quinn, Alesha Racine, Tom Rees, Dave Robertson, Rosie Rockel, Sharon Rockman, Stevie Ronnie, Phoebe Rose, Terese Säljö, Jane Satterfield, Rami Schandall, Amy Schofield, Laura Scott, Tim Scott, Mara Adamitz Scrupe, Michael Naghten Shanks, Hannah Silva, Tracey Slaughter, Caroline Smith, Meier Smith, Brian Sneeden, Sue Spiers, Jean Stevens, Mark Stewart, Anne Stillings, Angus Strachan, Laura Strickland, Errol T, Christina Thatcher, Jane Talbot, Charlotte Salkind, Royston Tester, Lauren Thomas, Oenone Thomas, Marvin Thompson, Pam Thompson, Basil du Toit, Eliza O’Toole, Harriet Torr, Aileen La Tourette, Cat Turhan, Suzannah V Evans, Jack Walters, Christian Ward, Isabel Waters-Widmanski, Rishika Williams, Olivia Wilson, Carson Wolfe, Shaw Worth, William Wyld, Hebe Yu

 

 

 

Left to right: Jane Draycott (woman with grey hair and large earrings in a black and white photograph), Will Harris (man in leather jacket with bleach blonde hair and glasses), Clare Pollard (woman with brown hair and fringe in navy jumper).
Left to right: Jane Draycott, Will Harris, Clare Pollard.

National Poetry Competition 2022 Winners

The 2022 competition was judged by Greta Stoddart, Jason Allen-Paisant and Michael Symmons Roberts. The competition results were announced on 29 March 2023.

The National Poetry Competition 2022 winners were announced at a live awards event at the Southbank Centre, London on 29 March 2023. There were over 17,800 poems submitted to the 2022 competition from 8,112 poets from 103 countries worldwide.

The 2022 winners

1st prize winner: Lee Stockdale, ‘My Dead Father’s General Store in the Middle of a Desert’

2nd prize winner: Tife Kusoro, ‘the only other dark-skinned girl’

3rd prize winner: Freya Bantiff, ‘God the Whale’

Commended poets:

Mike Barlow, ‘My Uncle Ivan’, Elena Croitoru, ‘Quantum Mechanics’Caroline Druitt, ‘We said goodbye at Nelson’s Column’, Susannah Hart, ‘Stepfather: Three Likenesses’, Rosie Jackson, ‘The Boisterous Sobbings of Margery Kempe’, Jennifer Nadel, ‘a cold coming’, Jeri Onitskansky, ‘The Pretty Goat’ 

The 2022 longlist

Nicole Adabunu · Arthur Allen · George Amabile · Mia Condron Asquith · Polly Atkin · Chaun Ballard · Liam Bates · Joan Baxter · Sarah Bitter · Joshua Blackman · Laura Bonang · Melanie Branton · Dean Browne · Kizziah Burton · Jane Burn · John Challis · Kate Clanchy · Victoria Clarke · Michael Conley · Hannah Connors ·  Courtney Conrad · Frances Corkey Thompson · Annabelle Cormack · Claire Cox · Katharine Craik · Tim Craven · Jade Cuttle · Aviva Dautch · Lucinda Davis · Sarah Doyle · James Driver · James Dufficy · Larissa Dunn · Eve Ellis · Eve Esfandiari-Denney · Katy Evans-Bush · Mark Farley · Paul Fenn · Sarah Fischer Field · Toby Fitch. Abigail Francis · Anna Frearson · Ann Giard-Chase Jason Gray · Mish Green · Katie Hale · Juliette Hart · Susannah Hart · Emily Harrison · Jo Haslam · Tabitha Hayward · James Michael Heaney · Christina Hennemann · Sam Hickford · Hannah Hodgson · Lindsey Holland · Mary-Jane Holmes · Eleanor Hooker · Christopher Horton · Jack Houston. Kit Ingram · Yasmin Inkersole · Christopher James · Emma Jeremy · Lois P Jones · Mabel Joshua-Amadi · Mark Joseph · Vishvantara Julia · Gaynor Kane · Michael Kealy · Lydia Kennaway · Jukka Koskelainen · Peter Krumbach · Zosia Kuczyńska · Thomas Laichas · Harry Laventure · Ian Lavery · Bryony Leeson · Debbie Lim · Theresa Lola · Amelia Loulli · Bernadette Lynch · Katharyn Machan · Wendy Manning · Barbara Marsh · Charlotte Marsh · Jenny Martin · Jane Wilkinson · Aisha McCrae · Alison McCrossan · Jim McElroy · Paul McMahon · Audrey Molloy · Karen Morash · Jarrett Moseley · Cheryl Moskowitz · Mary Mulholland · Andrew Musgrave · Eve Naden · Iain Napier · Serge Neptune · C.P. Nield · Joanna Nissel · Christopher North · Damen O’Brien · Laurence O’Dwyer · Judy O’Kane · Idman Omar · William Perryman · Kristal Phillips · Andrew Pidoux · Ann Pilling · Kathy Pimlott · Helen Pletts · Estelle Price · Helen Quah · Brenda Read-Brown · Richard Robbins · Sue Robbins. Julie Runacres · Georgio Russell · James Sapsard · Anna Selby · Jane Simmons · Sandy Solomon · Elizabeth Speller · Ella Standage · S.F. Stewart Romany Stott · Jeffery Sugarman · Peter Thickett · Michael W. Thomas · Susan Thomas · Cathryn Turhan · Samuel Ugbechie · Molly Underwood · Polly Walshe · Alan Weadick · Julia Webb · Roger West · John White · Petra White · Meesha Williams · Heidi Williamson · Maria Woodford · Susan Anne Wood · Luke Samuel Yates · Annina Zheng-Hardy

National Poetry Competition 2021 Winners

The National Poetry Competition 2021 winners were announced at a live awards event at Mercers’ Hall on 31 March 2022.

Read the winning poems via the links in the sidebar, and in the National Poetry Competition 2021 anthology below.

 

The judges for the National Poetry Competition 2021 were Fiona Benson, David Constantine and Rachel Long, who selected ten poems from 16,729 poems entered into the competition from 7,012 poets in 100 countries. Congratulations to all the winners and to the longlisted poets.

The 2021 winners

1st prize winner: Eric Yip for ‘Fricatives’

2nd prize winner: Jed Myers for ‘I Picture Him Driving’

3rd prize winner: Emma Purshouse for ‘Catherine Eddowes’ tin box as a key witness’

Commended poets:

Jo Haslam for ‘A lyke wake for auntie’, Lindsey Holland for ‘A Riddle of Hamsters’, Martin Reed for ‘Durleigh’, J.C. Todd for ‘Old Friends, Here and Gone’, Kizziah Burton for ‘We Were Learning Not to Look Away But To Look Through It Like A Wind Eye’, HLR for ‘When I First Bled’ and M.R. Peacocke for ‘Out of School’.

You can read more about the first-prize winning poem here.

The 2021 longlist

Congratulations, too, to the longlisted poets: Aileen Ballantyne, Amy Wolstenholme, Andrea Witzke Slot, Anita Ngai, Anna Whyatt, Anne Bailie, Anne Macaulay, Ayokunle Falomo, Blair Bourassa, Brian Herdman, Bridget O’Bernstein, Bunmi Ogunsiji, Caleb Leow, Carla Grosch-Miller, Carol Woods, Caroline Stancer, Catherine Edmunds, Catriona Wright, Charlie Druce, Charlotte Shevchenko Knight, Christine Webb, Christopher Wellings, Conor Cleary, Cory Ingram, Damen O’Brien, David Bleiman, David McLoghlin, David Robertson, David Swann, Denise O’Hagan, Dolores Walshe, Donald Futers, Elena Croitoru, Elizabeth Oxley, Ellen McAteer, Emily Harrison, Etan Kerr-Finell, Ewan Mackinnon, Fiona Bennett, Frank Jones, Geraldine Clarkson, Harriet Torr, Helen Mort, Hilary Taylor, Hugh Holme, I. Patterson, Inua Ellams, Jane Draycott, Jane Houston, Jane Warren, Jeanette Burton, Jennifer Hall, Jenny Martin, Jenny Mitchell, Jestyn Portugill, John Hussey, Jonathan Bates, Jonathan Edwards, Julie McNeely-Kirwan, Kate Segriff, Kathryn Bevis, Kirsten Irving, Lance Larsen, Laura Theis, Lauren Garland, Leonardo Boix, Lindy Barbour, Lynn Foote, Lynne Burnett, Lynne Jones, Maeve Cullen, Mark Fiddes, Maxine Backus, Mel Elberger, Merrie Joy Williams, Michael Forester, Midnight Dean, Mike Pullman, Miranda Peake, Moss Selkin, Neal Hoskins, Neil Fleming, Nicholas Samaras, Nick Drake, Nick Hawker, Oli Isaac, Oluwaseun Olayiwola, Partridge Boswell, Patch Fusi, Peter Krumbach, Rachel Burns, Robert Maxwell Duncan, Roger West, Ros Woolner, Sanah Ahsan, Scott McKendry, Simon Costello, Steph Morris, Tabitha Hayward, Tanvi Roberts, Tyler Jones, Valentina Rindunica, Vanessa Lampert, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Vijaya Venkatesan, Wendy Manning, William Stephenson and Zelda Chappel.