Win £500 for your poem in the York Literature Festival / YorkMix Poetry Competition 2016
Looking for the 2017 competition? Full details here
The 2016 competition is now closed
The York Literature Festival and YorkMix Poetry Competition is back – and open for entries.
In just three years, the competition has grown into one of the major events on the national literary scene.
Last year’s competition attracted some of the biggest names in poetry, among an entry of more than 1,800 poems.
How to win a poetry competitionPrize money has again been increased, with a top award of £500 for the best single poem, as judged by Carole Bromley, YorkMix’s Poet In Residence.
The competition runs from Guy Fawkes Night 2015 to Valentine’s Day 2016. Entries opened on November 5 2015.
And the closing date is February 14 2016.
Winning and commended poets will be invited to read their entries at a gala prize-giving on March 19 2016, during York Literature Festival, which runs from March 10 to March 23.
The prize-giving event will also feature a reading by judge Carole Bromley whose new poetry collection, The Stonegate Devil, has just been published.
Carole is the sole judge of the competition and reads every entry. She will be stepping down as judge after this year’s event.
Prizes
First prize: £500
Second Prize: £125
Third Prize: £75
The York prize (£50) will be awarded to an excellent poem from an entrant with a York postcode.
At the judge’s discretion, up to ten Highly Commended and up to 15 Commended poems will each win their writer a certificate.
How to enter
To ensure your poem is eligible, please read the full rules
Poems are welcomed on any subject. To be eligible, poems must be in English, run to no longer than 40 lines, and fit on a single A4 page.
They must be original and not previously published (see the full rules for criteria). Entrants must be over 18 and live in the British Isles.
Entry is £5 for a single poem, or £10 for up to three poems. There is no limit to the number of entries.
This competition is now closed
enquiry:
when will the results of the 2016 competition be published please?
Hi Mike. They have been published: see the full post here.
Hi there!
I have uploaded and submitted my poem, titled “Another Year”, my paypal email address is different from that of my submission, but the PaylPal reference is 6SH16074YX222954A
Could you kindly acknowledge receipt of my entry?
Many thanks,
Elspeth
[email protected]
We’ve got it Elspeth. Thanks for entering!
Okay, I’ve just submitted a poem and entry and though one part of the instructions say the poem will be automatically submitted on payment of the £5, another suggests that the transaction fee must be included. Perhaps you could rearrange the chronology of your entry fee so that this can come more naturally to entrants: viz: paypal first – then upload with “receipt number” to keep things organized.
As it is, I’ve gone through the form, uploaded the poem – without paypal reference as belatedly prompted by your entry feature – and must now ask for confirmation that the one has been associated with the other.
Can you associate – 9GR17730VH859461E with my poem “CHOIRMASTER”
Hi Perry. We have received your poem with corresponding transaction reference. Sorry it didn’t go smoothly, will look into this. Many thanks for entering, and good luck!
Resolved.
Hi just submitted a poem but had no confirmation as yet that you received it please can you let me know thanks you Penny
Hi Penny. We’ve checked and it’s arrived. Sorry your confirmation hasn’t come through, but we’ve definitely got your poem – thank you. Good luck!
Michael, In an effort to save some administration time this year, we thought the PayPal transaction receipt would suffice as an acknowledgement. On reflection, this was a poor decision by me! All poems will now receive a further formal acknowledgement of entry. This acknowledgment will happen only after the poems are forwarded (anonymously) to the judge. For clarification, I have updated the rules and information with the following paragraph: 5a. Acknowledgement of entries: When your entry payment is complete, PayPal will assign a transaction number to the payment; this is a confirmation of your entry. Entrants will also receive a formal confirmation of entry when their poems are forwarded (anonymously) to the judge. As poems are forwarded for judging in batches, this latter acknowledgement may be sent several days after submission of poems. Late entries (made within 14 days of the closing date) might not receive acknowledgement until after the closing date.
Thanks for your comment.
Can I suggest that you send a confirmation containing the poem titles? At the moment, I know I’ve paid £10 but I don’t have explicit confirmation that my poems have been submitted as well.
Hi Michael. Many thanks for entering the competition. We’ll look into this – I can confirm that we’ve received three poems from you.