For the results of previous competitions, see Previous Competitions.

Open Competition 2024

Adjudicator – Merryn Williams

FIRST PRIZE £600

SECOND PRIZE £300

THIRD PRIZE £100

CLOSING DATE: APRIL 30TH 2024

Winning and selected poems published in the competition anthology.

To download an entry form, click here.

Merryn Williams was the first editor of The Interpreter’s House magazine, and also edited The Georgians 1901-1930. Her most recent collections are The Fragile Bridge: New and Selected Poems and a pamphlet, After Hastings. During lockdown she passed the time reading hundreds of Covid poems and included the most interesting in Poems for the Year 2020: Eighty Poets on the Pandemic. All these books are published by Shoestring Press.

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY

The Ver Poets Open Competition is for poems on any theme and in any form. It is open to anybody aged 16 or over. There is no initial sifting process and Merryn Williams will receive all entries. Her decision is final.

To be eligible for the competition, poems must be no more than 30 lines in length. Each poem should be typed clearly, in English, on one side only of A4: one poem only per sheet, TWO COPIES OF EACH POEM please if entering by post.

Competitors’ names and addresses must not appear anywhere on the poems. Please write your contact details and the titles of all poems clearly on the entry form. If entering by email, please write your contact details and the titles of all poems in the body of the email and attach poems as a word document. Please use Open Entry as your subject line. Email: terryjones49@googlemail.com.

Competitors may submit any number of poems for a fee of £4.00 per poem, 3 poems for £10, £3 per poem thereafter. Payments may be made by bank transfer or cheques/postal orders (sterling only). It is not advisable to send cash in the post. To pay by bank transfer, the account details are: Ver Poets 40-40-01 82410419. The details for international bank transfer are: International Bank Account Number (IBAN) : GB04HBUK40400182410419, Branch Identifier Code (BIC): HBUKGB4110W. Your bank will probably charge you for an international bank transfer.

Entries must be received no later than April 30th 2024.

Poems must be the original work of the competitor. They should not have been published, or accepted for publication, in print or online. They should not have won prizes in other competitions, be simultaneously entered for other competitions or be translations of other poets’ work. No competitor may win more than one prize.

The copyright of all poems selected for the anthology will remain with the author but we reserve the right to publish the prizewinning poems on our website and in our newsletter. Copies of the competition anthology, The Ver Prize 2024, may be ordered by including a payment of £4 per copy plus £1 post and packaging. Selected and prizewinning poets will be informed by post in June and invited to read at a prize giving event. Results will be posted on our website in July.

A donation will be made from the proceeds to St Albans and District Foodbank, helping local people in crisis.

Please send postal entries to:

Competitions Secretary

23 Nightingale Walk

Windsor SL4 3HS

Email: terryjones49@googlemail.com