Founded in 1988, Poetry London is the city’s premier poetry magazine and one of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organizations (2023–2026). We publish three times a year – our Spring issue in March, our Summer issue in June and our Autumn issue in October. Our launches are held at the Southbank Centre in collaboration with the National Poetry Library. Our renowned annual poetry prize has helped launch the careers of some of the leading lights of contemporary UK poetry, including Liz Berry, Niall Campbell, Richard Scott, and Romalyn Ante, among others.
Poetry London’s editorial team is headed by the Italian-Iranian writer André Naffis-Sahely and Isabelle Baafi, a British poet and editor of Jamaican and South African descent. Previous editors have included Pascale Petit, Moniza Alvi, Maurice Riordan, Martha Kapos, Colette Bryce, Martha Sprackland, and Ahren Warner.
The Poetry London Prize is a major, internationally renowned award for a single outstanding poem. Previous winners include Liz Berry, Niall Campbell, Romalyn Ante, Richard Scott and Nick Makoha.
First Prize is £5,000, Second Prize is £2,000 and Third Prize is £1,000.
The judge of the 2024 Prize is Hannah Sullivan.
Hannah Sullivan is the author of Three Poems, which won the T. S. Eliot prize for 2018, as well as The Work of Revision (Harvard, 2013) and Was It for This (Faber, 2023). A lifelong Londoner, she now lives in Oxford with her husband and sons and is a fellow at New College.
Entry costs £10 per poem, or £5 per poem for subscribers.
There are a limited number of free entries for students / unwaged. Please select the correct fee option when you enter. To get the subscriber price, you do not need to be an existing subscriber. You can subscribe using this form, select the 'subscriber' poem fees, and check out at the same time as you pay for your entry.
All files must be either a .doc, .docx or .pdf. All entries will be judged anonymously and the poet’s name must not appear on any page of the portfolio. Entries must be written in English, can be on any subject and can be written in any style or form. Each poem should be uploaded in a separate document. Entries are welcome from poets based anywhere in the world and there are no restrictions on themes, subjects or styles.
You may submit up to six poems. Please include them all in the same document and include a cover letter. We are particularly keen to read poems in translation, especially translations from endangered languages.
THE POETRY LONDON PAMPHLET PRIZE WILL HELP WRITERS OF ALL BACKGROUNDS AND AGES WHO ARE READY TO TAKE THEIR WORK TO THE NEXT LEVEL VIA PUBLICATION WITH POETRY LONDON EDITIONS, THE MAGAZINE’S NEW BOOK PUBLISHING IMPRINT.
The winner will receive £250, publication of their pamphlet with Poetry London Editions and ten author copies of the work. The winner will also be invited to launch their pamphlet at Poetry London’s Autumn 2024 Readings at the Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival in October.
Submissions Open: March 15. Closing Date: May 31.
This year's judges are Nicole Sealey and Dan O'Brien.
Nicole Sealey is the author of The Ferguson Report: An Erasure, an excerpt from which was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, Ordinary Beast, finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the PEN Open Book Award, and The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named, winner of the Drinking Gourd Chapbook Prize.
Dan O’Brien is a poet, playwright, and nonfiction writer whose recognition includes the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship in Drama, and two PEN America Awards for playwriting. His poetry collections are Survivor’s Notebook, Our Cancers, New Life, Scarsdale, and War Reporter.
Entry costs are £20 per pamphlet, or £10 per pamphlet for current subscribers. Please only submit 24 pages of poetry.
All files must be either a .doc, .docx or .pdf. All entries will be judged anonymously and the poet’s name must not appear on any page. Entries must be written in English, can be on any subject and can be written in any style or form. Entries are welcome from poets based anywhere in the world and there are no restrictions on themes, subjects or styles.