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 2026 Prize is Seán Hewitt.
Seán Hewitt is the author of two poetry collections, Tongues of Fire and Rapture’s Road, and a memoir, All Down Darkness Wide. He collaborated with the artist Luke Edward Hall on 300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World. Hewitt has received the Laurel Prize and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature and been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize. His debut novel, Open, Heaven, was published in 2024. He lectures at Trinity College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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.