Rules

Here is a full list of our rules or conditions of entry:

Entry

1. Each poem must be no more than 50 lines in length (not including title or line breaks).
2. Each poem must be typed or clearly written, preferably on one side of the paper only.
3. No covering letter or other material should be enclosed with your entry.
4. No alterations can be made to a poem once it has been submitted.
5. The entrant may submit an unlimited number of poems, each to be accompanied by a £6 entrance fee (online entries via PayPal might be slightly different due to the admin fee by PayPal and our printing costs). We can only accept sterling.
6. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable to: The Welsh Poetry Competition.
7. If posting poem(s) also include the entry form. The name of the entrant must not appear on the entry itself.
8. Once entered, poems cannot be withdrawn from the competition. It is regretted that no entries can be returned, so keep a copy of your work.
9. All winners will be requested to provide a biography and photograph and take part in any subsequent publicity surrounding the competition.
10. Acknowledgement of receipt of poems will only be given if a SAE marked ‘Acknowledgement’ is enclosed.

Eligibility

11. Entries must be in English, not previously published in any form (including appearing on the Internet, self-published etc.).
12. The author must be living.
13. No translations are allowed.
14. Entries can be in any style and on any subject.
15. Entries should not be submitted for publication elsewhere while the competition is running.
16. Employees of The Welsh Poetry Competition and members of their immediate families are not eligible to enter.

Judging

17. Winners will be decided by our judge. The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding a decision. The organisers reserve the right to change the judge if circumstances dictate.
18. All entries must reach us by the closing date (online entries via PayPal can be submitted up until midnight on the final day of entry).
19. All winning poems will be announced and published on our website and may also be published elsewhere in the media.

Copyright

20. Copyright remains with the competitor, but The Welsh Poetry Competition reserves the right to arrange the first publication or broadcast of selected poems as it sees fit. Submission of a poem(s) implies the competitor’s acceptance of the conditions set out.
21. We also plan to publish a future anthology of the winners of the competition (approx. autumn 2026). By entering you agree to be part of this.
22. Cash prize winners will get a cheque from us (if resident in the UK) or will have to provide us with a PayPal address if overseas and should be aware that in this case, the actual amount may vary due to bank charges, commissions, exchange rates etc.

The closing date is shown on our entry page and entry forms.

Address to post: Welsh Poetry Competition, 9 The Avenue, Pontypridd, CF37 4DF (this is also on the entry form)
Email address: info@welshpoetry.co.uk (this is our address for all correspondence)

These rules are pretty standard and used by all good competitions, e.g. The Bridport Prize, National Poetry Competition and so on…



53 Comments

  1. Hello! I want to enter this contest, it’s amazing what you have done here for people worldwide. Can I send my poem by email? Thank you

    Reply

    • Yes, of course. That’s why it’s called the ‘Welsh’ Poetry Competition. Otherwise we’d call it Cystadleuaeth Farddoniaeth Gymraeg or something similar 🙂

      Reply

  4. Is it OK to submit a poem that has also been submitted for a competition for which the results are announced after yours? i.e. to submit and then withdraw from the other competition if successful in this one?

    Reply

  6. Hi there

    I have several poems which did well in prison competitions, notably the Koestler awards. They may or may not be anthologised in prison publications. Would this disqualify their entry?

    Also, due to my prison time and offence, it may be challenging for your organisation and myself to fully engage with any publicity. I could provide a photo, biography and get involved with publicity, but if that were to be necessary, it would require careful consideration from both sides.

    Cheers

    Marc

    Reply

    • Hi

      No problem regards publicity but ‘published’ is published I’m afraid. Unpublished poems are fine though 🙂

      Cheers Dave

      Reply

  7. Hi, I’m thinking of entering this competition, are joint entries accepted? My friend and I would like to submit a poem we co-wrote, and I can’t find anything in the rules against this but wanted to check anyway. Would this be ok?
    Thanks!

    Reply

  15. Hello,

    I was just wondering whether you would accept a bilingual poem (written partly in Welsh and in English), and if not, whether you have any recommendations as to where i could submit it?

    Thanks for your time,

    Heni Tinker.

    Reply

    • If it’s just the odd line or phrase then OK I’d say but if the reader (and judge) need to speak Welsh to understand meaning etc. then probably not.

      Reply

  17. Hi, I don’t like in the UK/ Great Britain. Can I still enter? I’m in a different country. How can someone from a different country “take part in any subsequent publicity surrounding the competition.”

    Reply

    • Yes of course we are international and have had entries from over 30 countries! You can enter using PayPal if you wish. I’ve sent you an entry form too 🙂

      Reply

    • It depends on our judge and how many entries we get but usually no more than 2 months after the closing date, usually 4-6 weeks. 🙂

      Reply

    • Tricky one. It depends on whether it can be accessed or seen by us or other entrants I guess? If no, then I guess it’s OK. You could always remove it until after the contest though, then put it back up.

      Reply

    • Published is published so if it stays there it is a ‘No’.

      If you remove it and submit that is usually fine, BUT… the internet is a funny place.

      Once your work is removed from the Internet, do a search of random lines from the work to make sure it is not appearing anywhere. (Evil Google and other search engines will often archive old websites, blog posts etc. so simply deleting something doesn’t mean it’s gone!)

      If we find (or someone reports seeing) your ‘unpublished’ work online, you might look irresponsible or, worse, devious so whilst this doesn’t really answer the question, we’re happy ‘most’ of the time as long as you’ve taken steps to ‘do the right thing’.

      Hope this helps.
      Cheers Dave

      Reply

  24. Hello, Please remember me! I submitted two poems to you in the early part of February: Christmas 1951 and Nine One Nine Any news on your decisions? Some others often try to claim my works as their own. Some unethical American sides insist on being evil to others not wanting to be into crime. These are truly the works of Dorothy Marie Elizabeth Lanasa

    Reply

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