LEDBURY POETRY FESTIVAL’S INFLUENTIAL INTERNATIONAL
POETRY COMPETITION OPENS FOR ENTRIES

JUDGE: DALJIT NAGRA

CLOSING DATE: Thursday 18 July 2019

FIRST PRIZE:
£1000,  a residential course at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre, 

and an invitation to read at the winners’ event in the 2019 Festival

Ledbury Poetry Festival 2019 Poetry Competition is now open for entries, with a great first prize of £1000 cash and a residential course at Tŷ Newydd , The National Writing Centre of Wales. Tŷ Newydd is renowned for its excellent writing courses, taught by outstanding poets in a beautiful setting between the sea and the mountains in North Wales. Winners also have the opportunity to read their poems at the internationally renowned Ledbury Poetry Festival 2020.
 
Daljit’s four poetry collections, all with Faber & Faber, have won the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem and Best First Book, the South Bank Show Decibel Award and the Cholmondeley Award, and been shortlisted for the Costa Prize and twice for the TS Eliot Prize. Daljit is a PBS New Generation Poet whose poems have appeared in The New Yorker, the LRB and the TLS, and his journalism in the FT and The Guardian. The inaugural Poet-in-Residence for Radio 4 & 4 Extra, he presents the weekly Poetry Extra, and serves on the Council of the Royal Society of Literature, and teaches at Brunel University London.
 
The Ledbury Poetry Festival Poetry Competition has been an important first step in many poets’ careers. Jacob Polley, winner of the 2016 T.S. Eliot Award, started his career with a win at Ledbury in 2001. “Winning the Ledbury Poetry Competition in 2001…pushed me forward, towards more poems, my first book and beyond”, Jacob says. Other previous winners include Maitreyabandhu (2010), Jonathan Edwards (2014) and 2017 T.S. Eliot shortlisted Jacqueline Saphra (2007). The Competition is increasingly international with several international winners. The Festival prides itself on a lasting relationship with its competition entrants and winners: many are asked back for performances, residencies and workshops. “Your Festival has been so crucial in my development” says Jonathan Edwards. The competition is open to all entries of original, previously unpublished work across categories for Adults, Young People (12-­17 years) and also Children (11 and under). Entry fees are £5.75 for the first poem and £3.50 for each subsequent poem. Children and Young People enter their first poem free.
 
Entry forms and full details of the Adult, Young People and Children’s Competition can be found here