We hope your poems will engage with one or all of the issues, concerns, challenges and changes that accompany the start of something. As always we are looking for fresh approaches to a broad subject, and a range of emotions.

There are three cash prizes: £500 for first place, £250 for second place and £100 for third place.

21 ‘commended’ poets will be included in our Beginnings Themed Anthology and invited to read their poem alongside the prizewinners and four commissioned poets at our Beginnings Poetry Event at Verve, hosted by Caroline! Those who attend will be given a free one day pass to enjoy any of the other events on that day at the festival.

Entry to our competition is £5.00 for the first poem and £3.00 for each subsequent poem

Judge: Caroline Bird is a poet and playwright. Her 2020 collection, The Air Year, won the Forward Poetry Prize for best collection, was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Awards and was Book of the Year in both The Guardian and The Telegraph. She was shortlisted for Most Promising New Playwright at the Off-West-End Awards, and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She was one of the five official poets at the 2012 London Olympics.

Find out more here

Deadline: 30 September 2021