Ware Poets Open Poetry Competition

We’re delighted to announce the 27th annual Ware Poets Open Poetry Competition. Over the years it has attracted a wide variety of expert judges with a high profile in the poetry world, with submissions of poems from across the United Kingdom and internationally. There is an additional prize for the best sonnet. The deadline for entries is 30th April 2025.

Prizes:

First prize £800, Second prize £400, Third prize £200, Sonnet prize £200 

All prize-winning and commended poets will be invited to read their poem at an informal, celebratory prize-giving event on Friday 11th July 2025, which will take place from 8-10pm at Southern Maltings Arts Centre in Ware, Hertfordshire. As with all our events, everyone is welcome to attend our prize-giving evening. The 2025 Competition judge Hannah Copley will award the prizes and will treat us to a reading of her own poems in the second half.

The poem that wins first prize will be automatically entered for the Forward Prize and the four prize-winning poems will be published on our website.

All winning and commended poems will be featured in our Ware Poets Open Competition 2025 Anthology, with an introduction by Hannah Copley. Each poet published in the 2025 Anthology will be sent a complimentary copy.      

Further copies of the 2025 Anthology will be available to order online from mid-July 2025.

How to enter

For full details please read the entry rules.

To submit online first pay the entry fee of £5 per poem via PayPal, debit or credit card, below.

Once you have paid, email your poem/s as pdf or Word attachment/s to warepoetscomp@gmail.com with the following information in the body of the email:

• Your name and postal address.

• The titles of all poems submitted.

• The date and Your transaction ID from your PayPal receipt.

• Say KEEP ME INFORMED if you’d like us to let you know about our competitions, monthly poetry readings and occasional other literary news.

If you wish to post your entry, please download and complete our postal entry form.