Home – Poetry Competition

Welcome to the Welsh Poetry Competition website.

The 2024 Competition

1st Prize Once Upon A Time – Gill Learner (Reading, UK)

Gill Learner - 1st Prize

2nd Prize   The Chariot – Theophilus Kwek (Singapore)

3rd Prize   To Poison – Sue Davies (Catisfield, UK)

To see the highly commended and read the winning poems – click here.

Previous Winners

To see all our past winners – click here.

Other News

If you are an indie writer or self-published poet and have a full-length poetry collection in paperback then why not take a look at the Poetry Book Awards. This international contest is seeking poetry from small, independent presses and offers cash prizes as well as many other benefits.

To help support local poets and indie book shops we have set up the Welsh Book Shop.  More books and writers are to be added as time goes on.

We have also created a Writers of Wales database. This long overdue A to Z resource aims to highlight all the great authors in the country and not just the chosen few.  Now up ‘For Sale’ – click here to find out more.

Poetry Anthology

The Third One – now available!

Poetry Competition Anthology

Almost all the winners from the last five years of the contest, 2017-2021.

With thousands of entries from forty countries in the world we are firmly established on the global literary scene and each year we publish some of the best modern poetry there is.

After fifteen years of running the contest not only are we here to stay but we look forward with confidence to the next five years and yet more awesome poetry heading our judges’ way.

To get your hands on a copy – click here.

Algorithm by Dave Lewis, new poetry collection

Newsletter

Mailchimp logo, poetry competitionIf you would like to be added to our mailing list just click the link below and we shall let you know when we update the website, announce winners and launch the next competition. We also offer writing tips, marketing ideas, author quotes, free poems and self-publishing news.

Sign Up Here

Our previous newsletters for the poetry competition and our self-publishing company are now combined so you get fewer emails. We usually send one email a month and you can unsubscribe at any time.

International Welsh Poetry Competition uses MailChimp for our newsletters, they are GDPR compliant and we never give your e-mail address to anyone else.

Anthologies

We have two fantastic anthologies available containing all the winning poems from the first ten years of the competition.

AnthologyThe First Five Years anthology contains over 100 previous competition winners (2007-2011) plus judges’ comments by John Evans, Mike Jenkins and Sally Spedding.

Now available direct from us at a special offer price of just £5.99 (free postage).

AnthologyOur second book – Ten Years On – contains all the winners from the five years (2012-2016) along with the judges’ comments by John Evans, Sally Spedding and Eloise Williams.

Available from the publishers for £8.99 plus postage.

AnthologyOur third book – The Third One – contains almost all the winners from the last five years (2017-2021) along with the judges’ comments by Kathy Miles, Sally Spedding and Mike Jenkins.

Available from the publishers for £10 plus postage.

If you would be interested in buying a copy and helping to support the competition click here for more details.

Publication

Poetry Competition publishingWhy not check out Publish & Print – a new self-publishing company based in south Wales that offers poets and writers an affordable yet professional service for those wishing to join the self-publishing revolution?

To find out more – click here.

Facebook logo, poetry competitionFacebook

Feel free to join the ‘Welsh Writers’ Facebook Group and post your poems for the world to see and judge, or just chat about poetry or the competition click here.

Note: You will need your own Facebook account to join in.

To follow us on X

Note: You will need your own Twitter (X) account to join in.

Funding

We should remind you that the competition is funded purely by the organisers & entrants and we receive no grants, bursaries or funding from the Arts Council of Wales, Literature Wales, Welsh Books Council, RCTCBC or any other external agencies whatsoever.

If any libraries, writing groups, small presses, Facebook groups, indie authors, Twitter followers, schools, universities, self-published poets, arts organisations, independent publishers, poetry workshops, bookshops, art galleries, councils etc. would like more information please let us know. You can email us or write to us at the usual address.

To read the rules – click here.

Thank you

www.welshpoetry.co.uk



All images copyright © Dave Lewis apart from:

Negative Space

59 Comments

  1. Hi
    I would like to enter a couple of new poems but I would also like to read them at an open mic in Llantwit Major in a couple of weeks. Does an open mic count as publication under your rules?
    Cheers

    Reply

    • Hi Paul
      Yes, I’m afraid technically that would count as “published” as people would know the work, however I won’t be at the event so if you don’t tell us…
      Cheers Dave

      Reply

  2. Hello,
    Am I allowed to enter a poem with welsh words in it? I only ask because the entry rules say the poem must be in english. It would be, but with welsh locations and single words in welsh. Is this allowed?
    Best,

    Reply

  3. Great competition. Just bought the third anthology – wow, such great poets we have here in Wales. Keep up the good work.

    Reply

  4. Just bought the new anthology – wow! What a book. Amazing poems from some of the best poets in the UK and beyond. Highly recommended.

    Reply

  5. Dear Dave, is there any chance of the 2021 Competition Winners clickable list staying up for a few more weeks or months ? To 9th October, say, or longer? I know people who want to go on the Winners list and read the poems, and not just mine but others’too. Mine is 13th on the Winners page, title A Mural for ‘Kitty’ Wilkinson.

    Reply

  11. Sad to hear of Literature Wales’ appalling treatment of the competition. Just goes to show how backward these people are. This awesome contes is known throughout the world for discovering truly amazing poets and these idiots can’t see they need to be supporting it both financially and marketing-wise. And people wonder why Wales is so poor. Very sad. Keep up the good work Dave, maybe they’ll knight you in the alternative honours one day, heh heh.

    Reply

    • Thanks Paul, yes it is a shame they don’t want to be involved in such a great contest. We also note that none of ‘their’ writers seem to enter which makes you wonder… Appreciate the sentiment but as Keith Richards said, no foreign inbred is coming near me with a sword, lol 🙂

      Reply

  14. Thank you for my ‘mention’ in your poetry competition. It is much appreciated. It will be great to read the winners in full.

    Reply

  15. Can I assume that your 2017 poetry comp. results will be available approximately by mid July again?
    Thanks for letting me know – I looked everywhere on your literature and couldn’t find a date but got a clur from reading these readers comments/queries.

    Reply

  16. Hi Dave, does each poem need to be a separate attachment? Or can several be placed in one document for email, each with a separate page and title of course!

    Reply

  17. Welsh poetry prize – sounds great – shades of my fave, Dylan Thomas.
    Not that I’m actually Welsh – but still …..

    PS how does one download or obtain entry form ??

    Reply

  21. Great competition, hope you’ll do even better in 2016 – 10 years eh! Great achievement Dave, Welsh literature owes you a debt of gratitude 🙂

    Reply

  22. Hello,

    I have entered four poems for your competition this year. Two of these poems I had submitted for consideration elsewhere back in January, and have since discovered that one is being published and another may be published at the end of July. I had assumed that, having not heard back for over four months, it would be acceptable to submit. I apologise for this, as I appreciate this can cause issues and/or be a waste of time. I notice that you have previously advised mid-July as the date they can not be published before? Please advise on how best to resolve the situation.

    Many thanks,

    Aoife

    Reply

    • Hi

      It’s always a tricky one, and we use the standard rule that says poems should not be previously published. Can’t go back on that one, but if someone submits in more than one place we’re happy to publish first… and as luck would have it we’ll be ready to announce winners before mid-July 🙂

      Cheers Dave

      Reply

  23. I’ve just sent off an entry to you. However it’s annoying when competition organisers aren’t clear about dates by which winners or shortlisted writers etc will be informed, so that ‘serial-competition-enterers” will know when their work is free to send out again. Even something like ‘early May’ or ‘April 30th ’on your rules and info sheet would be great. Could you please consider this for future. And if you can, can you let me know (even approximate) when the results will be? Thanks, Noel

    Reply

    • We don’t announce the ‘exact’ winners date, or the date for any prize night, until we’ve had all entries in. We only have one judge and as our judges read every single poem it is impossible to know how long that will take until we have a good idea of how many poems we might receive. Unlike many competitions who use so-called ‘filter judges’ to discard 90% of entrants poems before the main judge even sees them, we do not. That is why we believe we are more honest and fair.

      If you want to enter your poems elsewhere that is fine with us, as long as they are not published before our winners date. We will still publish (as per our rules) if they win a prize. So, to this end, we can give you an approx. date – mid-July for results.

      Reply

    • Yes, the competition is open to all. See our winners pages. We’ve had specially commended winners in 2014, 2010, 2008 and 2007 from under 18’s. 🙂

      Reply

  25. This is a great competition! Honest, anonymous judging and brave enough to publish the maddest/baddest poets out there! Keep up the good work!

    Reply

  30. I’ve been involved with theatre recently and looking forward to getting back to poetry making. Currently working on something for this competition. Hope it comes together in time. Such a high standard to aspire to.

    Reply

  31. Just read that:

    ‘Literature Wales regrets to announce that the Cardiff International Poetry Competition will not take place in 2015. The competition has in the past received generous financial support from Cardiff Council, however, in light of increased pressures on Council budgets, we have been informed that this funding is no longer available.’

    However, our international poetry competition is still here and growing stronger and stronger every year. So please pass this on to your writer friends! 🙂

    Reply

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