Picador Poetry Prize

Emerging Poets with a UK, channel Island, Isle of Man or Irish address should seriously think about submitting to Picador. There's only one publication prize but there's exposure for all shortlisted poets. And it's free.

The Picador Poetry Prize will recognize and publish the best new, previously unpublished poetry in the UK. It will be awarded for a representative selection of a poet's work, rather than a single poem.

The winning poet will be offered a small-but-perfectly-formed publisher's advance, and will have their first collection edited by Don Paterson, Picador's Poetry Editor. Their book will then be published on the award-winning Picador Poetry list, alongside some of the finest contemporary poets in the English language.

Judges: Don Paterson, Jackie Kay, John Stammers, Sarah Crown

They want a sampler of ten pages of poems.

Website www.picador.com/poetry/prize

Deadline: 1 September 2010 17:30 GMT.

Entrants who are shortlisted must provide a manuscript containing at least 20 pages of poems 

Entrants must be 18 or over on 1 April 2010 and a permanent resident of the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man or the Republic of Ireland.

Advice on the website includes the classic

If you don't actually read poetry, but fancy having a go anyway, don't.

and also

Amaze us. Move us to tears. Put the fear of god into us. Enlighten us. Fascinate us. Derange us. Blow our minds. Have us fall on the floor clutching our sides. Shed some light or dark on where we come from, what we are, where we're going. Shock us into a moment of clarity and wakefulness. And be accessible or challenging, be clear or chaotic, be formal or free, be loud or quiet - but above all be bold, make it sing, and keep the stakes high.

No pressure then!