Competitions

***STOP PRESS***
***Submissions are now closed for our
2023 Poetry Competition ***

The Hay Writers’ Circle Poetry Competition 2023 is officially open for entries! Anyone can enter this competition.  

Our judge this year is Alex Josephy. Alex lives in Rye, East Sussex, and sometimes in Italy. She has been a reader and writer of poetry all her life, and has an MA in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has worked as a teacher and university lecturer and as an NHS education adviser. Winner of the Cinnamon Press Pamphlet Award 2022 with Again behold the stars. Her most recent collection is Naked Since Faversham, Pindrop Press, 2020. Other work includes White Roads, Paekakariki Press, 2018, and Other Blackbirds, Cinnamon Press, 2016. Her poems have won the McLellan and Battered Moons prizes, and have appeared in magazines and anthologies in the UK, Italy and India.
You can find out more on her website: www.alexjosephy.net

Please follow the guidelines below if you would like to enter. You can contact haywriterscompetitions@outlook.com if you have any questions or queries. 

Click of the following highlighted link to download your entry form :

hay-writers-circle-poetry-comp-2023-1Download

Criteria

  • Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and by submitting you are confirming that the work is your own. Any evidence to the contrary will result in immediate disqualification.
  • Entries must not have been published, self-published, published on any website, blog, social media, or online forum, broadcast nor winning or placed (as in 2nd, 3rd, runner up etc.) in any other competition. 
  • If your entry has been long-listed or shortlisted in other competitions and provided it has not won a prize or been published, it is eligible.
  • Simultaneous submissions are allowed but will become ineligible should they win a prize elsewhere or be published prior to the date of prize giving. Entry fees will not be refunded. You must inform us immediately should your entry be published or win a prize elsewhere.
  • Entries submitted posthumously are not eligible.
  • Poems of up to 40 lines maximum will be accepted. The theme is entirely open. Title is not included in the line count. 
  • We will disqualify entries if they are named or over the line limit. If you forget to add the title or line count your entry will NOT be disqualified.
  • The closing date for entries is Tuesday 11th April 2023. Any entries received after this date will not be considered. 

Entries

  • Please use a good-sized text (12pt preferred), clear typeface (e.g., Times New Roman, Arial, Courier, or Comic Sans), as a courtesy to our judge, with single spacing between lines and double spacing between stanzas. 
  • All entries are judged anonymously. Your name or any contact details must NOT appear on your entry. Please put your name, title, and contact details on the booking form only. Please do not include your name in the file name.
  • Please put the title and line count at the beginning of your entry. Please number your pages and secure them together if you are submitting a hard copy. 
  • We would prefer entries via email but will also accept hard copies. 
  • Via email: Send your entry to haywriterscompetitions@outlook.com as a word document attachment with a completed copy of the form overleaf attached. Please write ‘competition entry’ in the subject box. 
  • Via post: Send your printed entry to – The HWC Competition Secretary, 3 Crug View, Silver Street, Llanfaes, Brecon, Powys, LD3 8BL, with a completed copy of the form overleaf attached. 

Payment 

  • Entry fee is £5 per poem, with a maximum of three entries permitted. For members of Hay Writers’ Circle, entry is free.
  • Please pay by BACS payment and ensure that your payment is received, with your name on the reference, before the 10th of April. Cheques will not be accepted. 
  • The first prize is £100 with cash prizes for second and third place. 
  • BACS payment can be made to: Hay and District Writers’ Circle, Natwest Bank, Sort code 53-50-31, Account no. 52557499. Please put your name as the reference.

Results 

  • The results will be announced in mid-May. Results are final and correspondence will not be entered into over the results. All entrants will be informed of the results.  
  • At our discretion, the winning entry will be published on the Hay Writers’ Circle website with the winner’s consent. Publication may prevent eligibility for other competitions. All rights remain with the author. 

GOOD LUCK!!

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