Over the years The London Magazine has been home to some of the most prestigious poets in its long publishing history, from John Keats to Sylvia Plath and Derek Walcott. Our annual Poetry Prize seeks out new voices in poetry, providing a platform for publication in the UK’s oldest literary journal. This year we are honoured to dedicate the prize in the memory of our esteemed Special Literary Adviser and renowned poet, Grey Gowrie.
All poems submitted must be previously unpublished and no longer than 40 lines. We have no criteria as to theme, form or style but we are looking for fresh, diverse and innovative new work.
Poems submitted must be previously unpublished and no longer than 40 lines. We have no criteria as to theme, form or style but we are looking for fresh, diverse and innovative new work. The competition is open to international entries.
We are delighted to announce that this year’s shortlist will be judged by National Poetry Competition and Forward Prize for Best Single Poem winner Ian Duhig, Anthony Anaxagorou, whose second poetry collection, After the Formalities, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2019, and Mona Arshi, winner of the Forward Prize and the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection.
Information
Entry fee: £10 per poem
Subsequent entries: £5 per poem
Student entry: £5 per poem
(There is no limit to the number of entries you can submit. Students must use a university email address – .ac.uk or similar – to enter with student fee).
Low income writer: £5 entry
(Writers receiving benefits may send up to three poems in one document under this option, but to be eligible please also attach a document proving that you are in receipt of benefits).
First Prize: £500
Second Prize: £300
Third Prize: £200
The winning poems will be published in future issues of The London Magazine and there will be an award ceremony held in London for the winners. Please enter your poems through the link here.
Opening date: 18th October 2021
DEADLINE: 27th December (4pm)
Judges
Here is some more information on this year’s judges, who we are absolutely over the moon to be working with:
Mona Arshi is a British poet. She worked as a human rights lawyer for Liberty for a decade before receiving a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. She won the Forward Prize, Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection in 2015 for her work Small Hands.
Mona works as a tutor for the Arvon Foundation and The Poetry School. Mona has judged the National Poetry Competition, The Forward Prize and is on the judging panel for the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2020. Her debut novel, Somebody Loves You will be published in autumn 2021.
Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. His second collection, After the Formalities (Penned in the Margins), is a Poetry Book Society recommendation. It was selected as one of The Telegraph’s and the Guardian’s best poetry books of 2019 and shortlisted for the 2019 T.S. Eliot Prize.
He was awarded the 2019 H-100 Award for writing and publishing, and the 2015 Groucho Maverick Award for his poetry and fiction. In 2019 he was made an honorary fellow of the University of Roehampton. His forthcoming poetry collection Heritage Aesthetics will be published by Granta in 2022.
Ian Duhig FRSL has published seven books of poetry, most recently The Blind Roadmaker, shortlisted for the Forward Best Collection and T.S. Eliot Prize. A Cholmondeley Award recipient, Duhig has won the Forward Best Poem Prize once and the National Poetry Competition twice. His New and Selected Poems from Picador is a Poetry Book Society Winter 2021 Special Commendation.
If you have any queries about the prize or submission guidelines, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at the following address: info@thelondonmagazine.org
We are interested in a wide variety of topics and many different styles of writing and recommend you submit through our online portal. However, we do find that those who are familiar with what we publish stand a far better chance of having their submissions accepted, so we also recommend getting your hands on a copy of our print journal which can be purchased here from our shop.
To discover more content exclusive to our print and digital editions, subscribe here to receive a copy of The London Magazine to your door every two months, while also enjoying full access to our extensive digital archive of essays, literary journalism, fiction and poetry.
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