York Literature Festival / York Mix Poetry Competition 2019 Call. Deadline: February 24, 2019

The York Literature Festival / YorkMix Poetry Competition 2019 is open and for the first time since the competition started seven years ago, international entries will be accepted! The deadline is February 24th 2019.

The judge for this year’s competition is Clare Shaw.

The details of the Competition are as follows:

Deadline: Sunday February 24 2019

Enter: To enter, please go here

Rules: For full rules, please go here

Prizes:

The first prize is £600, with a runner-up award of £150, a third prize of £75 and a fourth prize of £50.

All entrants are eligible for the top prizes. A £100 award will go to the best poem from a non-UK entrant.

The Helen Cadbury Prize of £50 – formerly The York Prize – will be awarded to an excellent poem from an entrant with a York (YO) postcode.

At the judge’s discretion, up to ten Highly Commended and 15 Commended poems will each win their writer a certificate.

Poets may enter as many poems as they wish. The 2019 entry fee is:

£7.50 for a single poem

£12 for two poems

£15 for three poems

£20 for four poems

£22.50 for five poems

There is no limit to the number of poems that can be submitted (to enter more than five poems, you will need to make a separate submission).

 

 

Just in case, you are lazy, like I am sometimes, the rules are:

1. Poems must be in English*, and may be on any subject. *Poems should be in English, but are allowed to contain occasional words, phrases or quotations in non-English languages. [Footnotes are allowed, and not included in the line-count of the poem]
2. Poems must be the entrant’s original work and not previously published in a collection or anthology, newspaper or poetry magazine. Work that has been posted in a closed poetry group online, or a personal blog online are eligible. Poems that have been broadcast on radio or podcasted online are not allowed.
3. Poems must not be longer than 40 lines of text, and must fit on a single A4 page. Poems must show the title and poem only. The poet’s name must not appear on the work. Poems may not be amended or edited after submission
4. Poems must be submitted via the official form on the entry page. Attachments must be in one of the following formats: Word (.doc or .docx), Text, Simpletext or TextEdit, Pages or PDF. Postal entries are not encouraged, but will be allowed in special circumstances, and only from UK addresses. See note below. Payment is online via PayPal. To pay by PayPal you do not need a PayPal account. All major credit cards are accepted. Just follow the instructions on the entry form.
5. Poets may enter as many poems as they wish. The 2019 entry fee is:
   £7.50 for a single poem;
   £12 for two poems;
   £15 for three poems;
   £20 for four poems
   £22.50 for five poems
   There is no limit to the number of poems that can be submitted (to enter more than five poems, you will need to make a separate submission).
6. Acknowledgement of entries: When your entry payment is complete, PayPal will assign a transaction number to the payment; receipt of a transaction number is official confirmation of your entry. Entrants will also receive a formal confirmation of entry when their poems are forwarded (anonymously) to the judge. As poems are forwarded for judging in batches, this latter acknowledgement may be sent up to 14 days after submission of poems. Late entries (made within seven days of the closing date) might not receive acknowledgement until after the closing date.
7. No poet may win more than one cash prize.
8. Closing date: Deadline is midnight on Sunday, February 24, 2019.
   The competition this year is open to international (non-UK) entrants too. Anybody aged 18 or over may enter.
9. (a) The title of International Prize will be awarded to the best entry from a non-UK entrant. If a non-UK entrant wins the first or second prize, the International Prize title and a £100 award will go to the next best non-UK entry.
   (b) Similarly, The Helen Cadbury Prize of £50 – formerly The York Prize – will be awarded to an excellent poem from an entrant with a York (YO) postcode.
10. Copyright in submitted poems remains with the author. Entrants agree to allow their poems to be featured fee-free on YorkMix.com, and the website of York Literature Festival. Winning and commended poems may not be published elsewhere before May 1, 2019, without the permission of the organisers. Winning and commended poems (and poets’ email contact details) might be shared with any partner publications. But it will be any such publication’s responsibility to seek the poet’s permission before publication.
11. Prize-winning and commended poems may be used by the organisers in publicity or promotional material that is relevant to the festival or by YorkMix.com in their poetry coverage.
12. York Literature Festival Committee members, and performers listed in the Festival programme, are not eligible to enter.
13. Winners will receive payment by cheque.
14. The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
15. Entrants agree to have their email address added to the York Literature Festival and YorkMix.com mailing lists, but can unsubscribe at any time.
16. The judge will read all entries; the entries will be presented to the judge anonymously
17. A shortlist of poem titles will be published on or soon after March 3, 2019. Shortlisted authors will be contacted by email. Prizewinners and commended poets will be contacted (by email) on or soon after March 10, 2019. All prize-winning or commended entrants will be invited to a special prize-giving event on Sunday, March 31, at a venue to be announced in YorkMix.com and on the Literature Festival’s website.
18. Any queries and the organisers’ response may be posted on YorkMix if it is deemed helpful to other entrants.
19. Entry implies acceptance of all rules.
20. The organisers reserve the right to amend or update the rules at any time.

 

POSTAL ENTRIES
Postal entries are not encouraged, as they add significantly to processing time and costs.
However, at the discretion of the competition organisers, entrants who encounter significant problems with the online entry or payment procedure may be allowed a postal entry.
If you need to make a postal entry, first write to the organisers by email: contact us on poetry@yorkmix.com with the words Poetry Competition in the Subject header.
There is a minimum entry fee of £25 for cheque payments (covering up to a five-poem entry). No postal entry will be accepted after February 18, 2019.

To enter for the competition, click HERE.

Best of luck!