The competition is organized by Mslexia, a British magazine for women writers.The competition is open to unpublished poems of any length, on any subject. Entries should be in English or English dialect.
Our judge this year is award-winning poet Helen Mort, whose work has been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Costa Prize and won the Fenton Aldeburgh Prize. The winner of our competition will get themselves £2,000, and the winner, finalists and 16 shortlisted poems will be published in the December issue of Mslexia.
Want to read the 2021 winning poem? ‘A poem to my mother that she will never read’ by Caroline Reid nabbed the top spot and you can find out how Caroline did it here, along with comments from our 2021 judge Pascale Petit.
Want more? Check out ‘A postcard on the restoritive effects of sea air after a nervous breakdown’, by Ellora Sutton, which won in 2020. And Regi Claire’s ‘(Un)certainties’ which won in 2019, and went on to be shortlisted in the prestigious Forward Prize for Poetry 2020.
Awards:-
• 1st prize: £2,000
• 2nd prize: £500
• 3rd prize: £250
• Unpublished Poetry Prize for the best poem by a previously unpublished poet: £250
Deadline:- 05-12-2022
Entry fees:- £10 for three poems.
