Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize

The Munster Literature Centre holds an annual competition for an international poetry prize for a single poem, named in honour of a late Irish poet long associated with the Centre.

The Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize will have a first prize of €1,000 (approx $1190.63 USD/ £882.80 GBP @ xe.com on 21st September 2017), a week's residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre and publication in Southword Literary Journal. The MLC will subvent travel costs for the winner up to €600 and provide hotel accommodation and meals for four days during the Cork International Poetry Festival. At the festival, the winner will be treated to a poetry masterclass with Brian Turner.

There will be a second prize of €500, third prize of €250, and ten runners-up will each have their poems published in Southword and receive Southword’s standard fee of €30.

The final date for receipt of entries is November 30, 2017. The judge is Munster Literature Centre Director Patrick Cotter.

Due to the large volume of entries, the judge will not be able to notify the authors of non-winning poems or give individual feedback. A shortlist will be posted on our website in late January and the winners will be announced during the Cork International Poetry Festival. We recommend signing up for the Munster Literature Centre newsletter if you would like to be kept up-to-date with all competition developments directly.

The 2018 Judge: Patrick Cotter

The competition is open to original, unpublished poems in the English language of 40 lines or less.

Fee €5 per poem. 5th poem free.

Link to guidelines and entry

Foreign Voices Poetry Competition

Competition deadline: 30th November 2017

Holland Park Press invite you to write a poem about migration.

We’re inviting you to send us poems that deal with the subject of migration.

People move to another country for many reasons ranging from loving someone to fleeing from war and persecution. Are you an immigrant, emigrant, refugee, or are any of your friends, relatives or neighbours? How do you react to what you read on social media about migration? Are you involved in supporting immigrants or deal with them in an official capacity?

Poems can be triggered by any aspect of migration and the opportunities to reflect on this theme are endless.

We don’t have to agree with your opinions, but we do want to be touched in some way by your poem, inspired by its imagery and, of course, look for a beautiful use of language.

Terms and Conditions

Prize: £200 and publication in the Holland Park Press online magazine
Length: 50 lines or less
Entry fee: none
Starting date: 1 September 2017
Deadline: 30 November 2017
Eligibility: poems written in English by writers over 18 from any country
To submit: email your poem as a Word or PDF attachment to submissions@hollandparkpress.co.uk

We accept poems from authors of all nationalities and based anywhere in the world provided you comply with these guidelines:

• Your poem has to be written in English
• Translations are not accepted
• Poems should not exceed 50 lines
• The poem must be the original work of the entrant
• The poems must not have been previously awarded or published
• You can only send in one poem per entrant
• You have to be eighteen or over
• You can be based in any country but your poem needs to be in English
• You can be of any nationality but your poem needs to be in English
• We only accept email submissions

Organizer: Holland Park Press
Webpage: complete guidelines are available here. 

Francis Ledwidge Poetry Award

Trophy and Cash Prizes

1st Prize is the Ledwidge plaque (a keepsake) inscribed with the winner’s name & cash prize.
Cash prizes and books for Second and Third and merit certificates for finalists.

The first 3 poems will be entered in the Forward Prize UK
In addition, the winner will be invited to read at the annual Francis Ledwidge Commemoration at the National War Memorial Gardens in July 2018

Rules :
Poems must be the competitor’s own work not previously published or broadcast.
Poems should not exceed 40 lines of type
Entry fee: €5 per poem
Max. 6 poems payable to the Inchicore Ledwidge Society
Name and address and telephone number on a separate sheet.
S.A.E. or Email address for winners list. Poems will not be returned.
All entries must be submitted before 5th November 2017 to:
The Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award 2017,
C/o 20, Emmet Crescent.
Inchicore, Dublin 8

Winners will be notified and results will be announced at the annual awards night
Check out the Facebook page: Inchicore Ledwidge Society

Pickled Body Submissions

Call for Submissions: Issue 3.2 – Egg

The online mag, The Pickled Body is looking for poetry submissions.

Call for Submissions – Issue 3.2: Egg
Deadline: November 30, 2016

The egg is surreal*. Consider what it is, where it comes from. Wonder whether or not it came first.

The egg is versatile (think metaphor for breast, eye, the beginning, the end; think puns). The egg is volatile (think salmonella). In The Great Gatsby it’s the tail end of East and West. Eat it; on its own – over easy, scrambled, poached – or as part of something bigger than itself – cake, quiche, meringue. It is all things, and it is nothing. And Dali, if you take Picasso’s word for it, had a monopoly on them.

Send up to three of your best egg poems to thepickledbody@gmail.com

Link here

The Rialto poetry pamphlet competition

The rather brilliant UK poetry magazine Rialto has a new poetry pamphlet competition.

1st prize: publication of the winning pamphlet + launch reading + up to £200 travel expenses

Poets on the shortlist of 10 will each get a paragraph of feedback. The winner and 3 others will have a poem published in The Rialto. All shortlisted poets will have a poem published on our website.

Deadline: Wednesday 30 November 2016  

Judge: Hannah Lowe

Please send us 18-24 pages of poems. Poems should be typed in single spacing on one side of A4 paper and in a font size of 12. Start each poem on a new page.  Maximum 40 lines per page.  If you include a poem sequence in which the poems are 14 lines long or less then you may put two on a page.

More guidelines and submission details here

Cinnamon Press Debut Poetry Collection Prize

• Prize of £300 plus publishing contract.
• Up to 25 runners up published in a poetry anthology.
• Open to those who have not had a full collection published.
• Judged by Jan Fortune.
• The fee is £12

• Entrants  should not previously have had a full poetry collection published.

• Entries should be submitted electronically, via the forms on each competition page, in .doc, .docx or .rtf file formats only. Please ensure you have up to date virus protection before sending any files. (If you have problems please email for guidance.). You may also send send your work by post, without your name on the MS, but please add a cover sheet with your contacts details and the name of your work.
• Submit 10 poems up to 40 lines

• Deadline: 30 November, 2016

Guidelines and online submissions here

Café Writers Poetry Competition

Deadline: 30th November 2016

PRIZES

• 1ST  £1000       
• 2nd £300 3rd £200  
• Six Commended Prizes of £50
• Funniest Poem not winning another prize £100

The Norfolk Prize   £100
awarded to the best poem from a permanent Norfolk resident not winning another prize

Entry Fee: £4 per poem; or £10 for 3 poems and £2.00 per poem thereafter

Sole Judge: Andrew McMillan

Andrew McMillan was born in South Yorkshire in 1988: his debut collection Physical is the first ever poetry collection to win The Guardian First Book Award, it also won the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, was short-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Costa Poetry Award, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Roehampton Poetry Prize and long-listed for the Polari Prize; it won a 2014 Northern Writers’ Award, and both an Eric Gregory Award and a Somerset Maugham Award in 2016 from the Society of Authors.  He lectures in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University and lives in Manchester.

Competition Rules

• Maximum of 40 lines (excluding title) on one side of A4.
• Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been published, self-published, published on any web-site or broadcast.
• Entries must be your own original work and in English.
• Entries must show no name, address or identifying marks other than the title.
• Prizewinners will be notified in writing by 31st January 2017.  The list of prizewinners will be displayed on the website after the prize-giving ceremony at Café Writers on 17th February 2017.

Enter online or by post details here

The Bath Children’s Novel Award 2016

I have a couple of reservations about this competition so buyer beware. Why must the entrant be unagented? Does Cornerstones agency then hope charge lots of fees to all entrants to edit their manuscripts?

Deadline: 20th November 2016

The Bath Children’s Novel Award 2016 is open for submissions, with entries invited from children’s novelists of any nationality and perspective. We’re looking for all genres of chapter, middle grade and young adult novels – from funny to dark, fashionable to forever, fantastic to futuristic.

Judge: Julia Churchill (Literary agent at AM Heath)

Prize: £2,000 with an additional shortlistee prize of £500 vouchers from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy.

Submissions: 3,000 words plus a one page synopsis

Fee: £22 per novel

The Bath Children’s Novel Award 2016 Rules:

The Bath Children’s Novel Award is a competition for unpublished and independently published writers. Entrants should not have accepted a traditional publication offer for a novel. For the purposes of the competition, a ‘traditional publication offer’ is defined as an offer to publish a novel with advance payment.

Novels should be for children who are able to read for themselves, or young adults. Picture books and graphic novels are not eligible.

Entrants must be unagented.

Submissions should include (up to) the first 3,000 words of your novel plus a one page synopsis. Your novel extract should be double-spaced in a size 12 font and include the title. Your synopsis should be single-spaced in a size 12 font. As entries are read ‘blind’, please do NOT include your name anywhere on the extract and synopsis document.

In your email (or covering page for postal entrants), state your name, address, telephone number, novel title, genre, extract and approximate full manuscript word count, plus your method of entry fee payment.

Longlisted entrants will be announced early December 2016 and asked to submit their full manuscript for the final judging stages. Shortlisted entrants will be announced in December 2016.

The winner of The Bath Children’s Novel Award will be announced in January 2017 and receive £2,000 plus a Minerva trophy, designed by Jessica Palmer.

One shortlisted writer will receive £500 in vouchers from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy which may be used towards any editorial report or mentoring hours in either Cornerstones’ US or UK house. There is no cash alternative to this prize.

There are no full manuscript word count restrictions, however as a guide, we recommend 6-10,000 for a chapter book, 40-60,000 for middle grade and 50-70,000 words for YA (or longer for fantasy novels).

Novels must be your original work and in English.

Entries are open to writers aged 16 years and over of any nationality and based in any country.

Entrants retain full copyright of their submissions, however by entering, all entrants give The Bath Novel Award permission to post the first 3,000 words of any shortlisted entries on our site.

Check out the website for more info: https://bathnovelaward.co.uk/childrens-novel-award/

The Gregory O’Donoghue Poetry Prize

Deadline: November 30, 2016

The Gregory O’Donoghue Prize is an award for a single poem, with a first prize of €1,000 ($1,120/£860), a week’s residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, and publication in Southword journal.

Organisers The Munster Literature Centre will also bring the winning writer to read at the Cork International Poetry Festival in February 2017, covering travel costs up to €600 and providing food and hotel accommodation for the four days of the festival.

Other poets who will be reading at the poetry festival include Mark Doty, Karen Solie, Matthew Dickman (the poetry editor of Tin House), and Maya Catherine Popa (a previous winner of the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize).

There will be a second prize of €500, third prize of €250, and ten runners-up will each have their poems published in Southword and receive the journal’s standard fee of €30.

This year’s judge is poet Mary Noonan. Read her tips for writing poetry on Writing.ie here.

Terms and Conditions
A shortlist will be posted on our website in late January and the winners will be announced during the Cork International Poetry Festival.

1. The competition is open to original, unpublished poems in the English language of 40 lines or less. The poem can be on any subject, in any style, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, translated work is not in the scope of this competition.

2. Entries should be typed. As this competition is judged anonymously, the entrant’s name and contact details must be on a separate piece of paper. If you pay by Paypal, please quote the receipt number and the email address payment was issued from. Please also include a note about how your heard about the competition. Manuscripts cannot be returned. Your name should not appear on the same page as the poem to ensure anonymity.

3. There will be an entry fee of €5 per poem or €20 per batch of five.

Guidelines and to enter, click here.

18th. Francis Ledwidge Poetry Award

The Francis Ledwidge poetry competition is open for entries.

1st Prize is the Ledwidge plaque (a keepsake) inscribed with the winner’s name & cash prize. Cash prizes and books for Second and Third and merit certificates for finalists.

The first 3 poems will be entered in the Forward Prize UK.
In addition, the winner will be invited to read at the annual Francis Ledwidge Commemoration at the National War Memorial Gardens in July 2017

Rules
Poems must be the competitor’s own work
not previously published or broadcast.
Poems should not exceed 40 lines of type
Entry fee: €4 per poem, 3 for €10.
Max. 6 poems (€20) payable to the Inchicore Ledwidge Society

Name and address and telephone number on a separate sheet.
S.A.E. or Email address for winners list. Poems will not be returned.
;
All entries must be submitted before 5th. November 2016 to
The Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award 2016,
C/o 20, Emmet Crescent.
Inchicore, Dublin 8

Winners will be notified and results will be announced at our annual awards night enquiries 0858497531: check out our Facebook page: Inchicore Ledwidge Society

18th. Francis Ledwidge Poetry Award

Trophy and Cash Prizes

1^st Prize is the Ledwidge plaque (a keepsake) inscribed with the winner’s name & cash prize. Cash prizes and books for Second and Third and merit certificates for finalists.

The first 3 poems will be entered in the Forward Prize UK

In addition, the winner will be invited to read at the annual Francis Ledwidge Commemoration at the National War Memorial Gardens in July 2017

Rules

Poems must be the competitor’s own work

not previously published or broadcast.

Poems should not exceed 40 lines of type

Entry fee: €4 per poem, 3 for €10.

Max. 6 poems (€20) payable to the Inchicore Ledwidge Society

Name and address and telephone number on a separate sheet.

Deadline: 5^th November 2016 

The Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award 2016,

C/o 20, Emmet Crescent.

Inchicore, Dublin 8

Winners will be notified and results will be announced at our annual awards night 

Check out the Facebook page: InchicoreLedwidge Society

Cafe Writers Poetry Competition

Deadline very close for this poetry competition

Deadline 30th Nov 2015

PRIZES

1ST  £1000       

2nd £300 3rd £200  

Six Commended Prizes of £50

Funniest Poem not winning another prize £100

The sole judge this year is Tiffany Atkinson.  There is no sifting.    

Entry Fee

£4 per poem; or £10 for 3 poems and £2.00 per poem thereafter

Enter and pay online at  http://cafewriters.co.uk/home/poetry-competition/ .  You can download an entry form direct from the link if you prefer to send your entry by post.  

• Maximum of 40 lines (excluding title) on one side of A4.

The competition funds our programme and allows us to pay writers properly. Café Writers is a Norwich based grass-roots writers’ network supporting and showcasing work by established writers in all genres.  It also encourages and champions new work by emerging writers.  It is run entirely by volunteers that are passionate about encouraging wider participation and excellence in literature. 

Crannog Submissions

Get your submissions in for Crannog magazine from Galway.

Submissions for Crannóg February 2015 issue are accepted all through November. They have reduced the submission time for each issue to one month which means submissions are not tied up for long and a decision will be reached quickly. 

Deadline: 30th November 2015

Writers selected to appear in Crannóg will receive:
* A contributor's copy and €30 per story, €20 per poem.
 * An invitation to attend/read at the launch of Crannóg at The Crane Bar, Galway, Ireland.

Please read full submission rules HERE first!

Donegal Creameries \ North West Words Poetry Prize

The Donegal Creameries North West Words Poetry Prize is in its fourth year.

Judge: Kate Newmann of Summer Palace Press 

Deadline: 27 November

Prize: €250 and perpetual Donegal Creameries North West Words Poetry Cup
Fineprint here

The maximum number of poems per entrant is 3. 

Entry fee: €5 (covers maximum entry of up to 3 poems)

I think an entry of 3 poems is a very good idea. One poem is such a lottery.

This year’s competition also sees the introduction of a new category for best Irish Language poem. North West Words felt it was important to recognise the wealth of contemporary Irish language poetry being that exists in the country. The group partnered with Ealaín na Gaeltachta (the body responsible for the development of the Arts in the Gaeltacht regions), combined to develop an Irish language competition that would champion new poetry being written in our indigenous tongue.

The competition will have the same format as it’s English language counterpart with a prize of €250 to be awarded to the entrant who composes the best poem as Gaeilge. The winner will also receive a perpetual trophy.

Send your poem(s) along with a cover letter with name, address, and phone number and/or email address, and title(s) of each poem submitted. 

Post entries to North West Words Poetry Prize 2015, 54 Thornberry, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. 

Or this year you can enter online.

Online entries should be attached in one document and copied into the body of the email and sent to editornww@yahoo.com
Paypal link is on the website

A shortlist but only one prize.

A shortlist will be published on www.northwestwords.com on North West Words’ Facebook page and the winner announced and prize awarded at North West Words’ event in Café Blend, Letterkenny Thursday 28th January 2016

The winning poet will be notified on Thursday, 15 January 2015

dlr Arts Office Opportunities

dlr Arts Office invites applications for a storyteller in residence for December 2015 to November 2016.

It is a part-time residency which will allow time for the storytellers own work. In addition the residency will offer engagement and interaction with local communities in the creation of a new story/stories for the west of the County and a cultural exchange to Turkey.

Closing Date: 19 November at 12 noon

dlr Arts Office is delighted to invite applications for Arts Grants for activity taking place throughout 2016. Funding is available for events and projects, participation and learning, professional development, arts practice support and arts access.

For more information and to apply please click on this link.

Closing Date: Monday 2 November 2015 

Gregory O'Donoghue International Poetry Competition

Deadline: 30th November

1st Prize €1000, a week's residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, publication in Southword
and a trip to Cork.

2nd Prize €500 & publication in Southword

3rd Prize €250 & publication in Southword

Ten runners-up to be published in Southword and receive €30 publication fee.

Link here Munsterlit

2016 Judge: Patrick Cotter. The judge will read each and every entry himself.
Entry fee of €5 per poem or €20 per batch of five. 

The 17th Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award

Do yourself a favour and read some of the poems by Francis Ledwidge.

Here's the annual poetry competition in his honour.

Deadline: 5th November 

The first prize is the Ledwidge plaque inscribed with the winner's name and a cash prize as well. Cash prizes and books for second and third places with merit certificates for all finalists. The certificates are always beautifully done and well worth having. The first three poems will be entered in the Forward Prize UK and in addition the winner will be invited to read at the annual Francis Ledwidge Commemoration at the National War Memorial Gardens in July 2016.

The poems must be the competitor's own work and not previously published or broadcast and must not exceed 40 lines of type with a max of six poems entered. 

The entry fees are €4 per poem or three for €10 and six will cost you €20. Put your name and address on a separate sheet and send your entries to:

The Francis Ledwidge International Poetry Award 2015,

C/o 20, Emmet Crescent, Inchicore, Dublin 8.

Winners will be notified and results announced at the annual awards night.

Facebook page: Inchicore Ledwidge Society. 

Troubadours Poetry Award - Whispering Prairie Press

Fancy getting published in the US? This themed poetry competition may ring your bell, toot your horn or ......(insert another musical pun here)

$25.00 Fee

Ends on 30th November

Van Morrison or Nora Jones? We're looking for your poems inspired by modern troubadours. Any form, no line limit. Be inspired by a musician and/or song of the troubadour/story-telling tradition.

Grand prize $1,000 with option to publish in Vol 14 of Kansas City Voices magazine
Second Place $500
Third Place $350
Honorable Mentions

Submittable Link here

Plough International Poetry Prize

Judge Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate.  However, I think the Plough pre-selects a shortlist for her which you may not like.

Entry fee £5 per poem.

1^st prize £1,000

2nd prize £500

3^rd prize £250

Closing date: 30 November 2015

40 lines, no theme.

www.theploughprize.co.uk

100 Words, 100 Books

The Book Show, RTÉ Radio has launched a very short fiction/flash competition. 

Prizes: 100 books, publication in a book of the best short fiction received and the shortlisted writers will have their stories read out on stage at a live recording of The Book Show to be simultaneously broadcast live on radio on 6 December.

Deadline: 23 November 2014

rte.ie/radio1/the-book-show/

Guidelines

• The competition is open to people born or resident in Ireland and must be in English.
• Submitted stories must be a minimum of 100 words, up to a maximum of 200 words.
• All stories must be original and unpublished (including online).
• No more than three stories by the same author can be entered.
• A small panel of judges will be judging these with these entries.

Who are the judges?

Enter By Post: 
100 Words, 100 Books, The Book Show, RTE Radio 1, Donny brook Dublin 4. 

or By Email:

bookshow@rte.ie with “100 Words, 100 Books” in the subject line.