LEDBURY POETRY FESTIVAL’S INFLUENTIAL INTERNATIONAL

POETRY COMPETITION IS OPEN FOR ENTRIES!

JUDGE: LIZ BERRY 

CLOSING DATE: Thursday 16 July 2020

FIRST PRIZE: £1000, a residential course at Ty Newydd Writing Centre and an invitation to read at the winners’ event in the 2021 Festival

Ledbury Poetry Festival 2020 Poetry Competition is open for entries. It carries a great first prize of £1000 cash and a residential course at Ty Newydd Writing Centre. Competition winners (from all categories) also have the opportunity to read their poems at the internationally renowned Ledbury Poetry Festival 2021. Ty Newydd is renowned for its excellent writing courses, taught by outstanding poets in a beautiful setting between the sea and the mountains in North Wales.

Liz Berry was born in the Black Country and now lives in Birmingham. Her first book of poems, Black Country (Chatto 2014), described as a ‘sooty, soaring hymn to her native West Midlands’ (Guardian) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, received a Somerset Maugham Award and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award and Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2014. Her pamphlet The Republic of Motherhood (Chatto, 2018) was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet choice and the title poem won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2018. Liz is a patron of Writing West Midlands and works as a tutor for organisations including the Arvon Foundation and The Poetry School.

The Ledbury Poetry Festival Poetry Competition has been an important first step in many poets’ careers. Jacob Polley, winner of the 2016 T.S. Eliot Award, started his career with a win at Ledbury in 2001. “Winning the Ledbury Poetry Competition in 2001 pushed me forward, towards more poems, my first book and beyond”, Jacob says. Other previous winners include Maitreyabandhu (2010), Jonathan Edwards (2014) and 2017 T.S. Eliot shortlisted Jacqueline Saphra (2007). The Competition is increasingly international with several international winners. The Festival prides itself on a lasting relationship with its competition entrants and winners: many are asked back for performances, residencies and workshops. “Your Festival has been so crucial in my development” says Jonathan Edwards. The competition is open to all entries of original, previously unpublished work across categories for Adults, Young People (12-­17 years) and also Children (11 and under).

Entry fees are £5.75 for the first poem and £3.50 for each subsequent poem. Children and Young People enter their first poem free.

Go to https://www.poetry-festival.co.uk/ledbury-poetry-competition/ for entry forms