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All poems submitted must be previously unpublished and no longer than 40 lines.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Poems submitted must be previously unpublished and no longer than 40 lines.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 Joelle Taylor, the winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2021, Maya C. Popa, whose poetry collection, American Faith, won the 2020 North American Book Prize, and James Conor Patterson, whose debut collection bandit country has been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2022.
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: 25th November 2022
DEADLINE: 24th February (midnight)
Judges
Here is some more information on this year’s judges, who we are absolutely over the moon to be working with:
Joelle Taylor is an award-winning poet, playwright, author and educator. She has written four collections of poetry: Ska Tissue (Mother Foucault Press, 2011), The Woman Who Was Not There (Burning Eye Books, 2014) and Songs My Enemy Taught Me (Out-Spoken Press, 2017). Her most recent collection, C+NTO & Othered Poems (Westbourne Press, 2021) was the winner of the T.S. Eliot Award 2021. It was named as one of the best poetry books of the year by The Telegraph, The New Statesman, The Times Literary Supplement and The White Review. She is co-curator and host of Out-Spoken Live, a live poetry and performance club in residence at the Southbank Centre.
Maya C. Popa is a Romanian-American poet and the author of Wound is the Origin of Wonder (W. W. Norton, 2022), as well as American Faith (Sarabande Books, 2019). The recipient of prizes from the Poetry Foundation, the Oxford Poetry Society, the Hippocrates Society in London, and the Munster Literary Centre in Cork, Ireland, she is the poetry reviews editor at Publishers Weekly and teaches poetry at New York University.
James Conor Patterson is the editor of the anthology The New Frontier: Reflections from the Irish Border published in October 2021 by New Island Books. He is also the author of the poetry collection bandit country (Picador, 2022), shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2022. Individual pieces have appeared or are forthcoming in Granta, The Guardian, i-D, The Irish Times, Magma, The Moth, Morning Star, New Statesman, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry London, Poetry Review, RTÉ Culture, The Stinging Fly and The Tangerine, among others. He is a recipient of the 2019 Eric Gregory Award.
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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