The London Magazine is the UK’s oldest literary magazine, proud to have published some of the biggest names in poetry including Mary Jean Chan, T. S. Eliot, Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and Philip Larkin. Now, we are excited to announce the launch of our Poetry Prize 2024.
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Established to encourage emerging literary talent, the award provides an opportunity for publication and recognition, as well as rewarding imagination, originality and creativity. The London Magazine is taking submissions for previously previously unpublished poems, no longer than 40 lines. We have no criteria as to theme, form or style but we are looking for fresh and diverse new work. The competition is also open to international entries.
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We are delighted to announce that entries will be judged by: Rachel Long, Kathryn Bevis, and Declan Ryan.
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All three prize winners will appear in The London Magazine. Prize winners will also receive cash prizes (see below), and will be celebrated at a prize-giving event in late spring.
Information
Entry fee: £10 per poem
Subsequent entries: £5 per poem
Student entry: £5 per poem
(There is no limit to the number of entries you can submit. Students must use a university email address – .ac.uk or similar – to enter with student fee).
Low income writer: £5 entry
(Writers receiving benefits may send up to three poems in one document under this option, but to be eligible please also attach a document proving that you are in receipt of benefits).
First Prize: £500
Second Prize: £300
Third Prize: £200
The winning poems will be published in future issues of The London Magazine and there will be an award ceremony held in London for the winners. Please enter your poems through the link here.
Opening date: 19th December 2023
DEADLINE: 31st March 2024
Judges
Here is some more information on this year’s judges, who we are absolutely over the moon to be working with:
Declan Ryan is a poet and critic in London. His first collection, Crisis Actor, is published in the UK by Faber & Faber (July 2023) and is forthcoming in the US from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (February 2024). His reviews and essays have appeared in journals including New York Review of Books, The Baffler, Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, The Observer, Poetry, Los Angeles Review of Books and New Statesman.
What he is looking for:
“I am reminded of Larkin’s old line, when judging a competition – ‘where are all the love poems?’. I don’t have any hard or fast shoo-ins I’m drawn to when looking at poems, in terms of setting or style, other than a hoped-for sense that they in some way had to be written, and which – ideally – legislate for pleasure, in their language, if not necessarily their subject. There’s always something instinctive when encountering new poems so I wouldn’t want to be prescriptive, other than to hope that something earns one’s attention, and is well served by re-reading.”
Kathryn Bevis is former Hampshire Poet Laureate and founder of The Writing School Online. Her poems have appeared in: Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Wales, Magma, The London Magazine, and recorded for The Poetry Archive. Her pamphlet, Flamingo (Seren, 2022), was one of the Poetry Society’s ‘Books of the Year’ and her poem ‘My body tells me that she’s filing for divorce’ was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem – Written – 2023. Her debut collection, The Butterfly House, is forthcoming (Seren, 2024).
What she is looking for:
“I’m looking for poems that move me emotionally, poems that have an urgency about what they want to say, and poems that are sure footed in their craft. I also love poems that surprise me so the best bet is to just send me your best work!”
Rachel Long’s debut collection, My Darling from the Lions was published by Picador in the UK, in 2020, and by Tin House, in the US, in 2021. It was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, The Costa Book Award, The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, The Rathbones Folio Prize, and the Jhalak Prize Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour. The US edition of My Darling from the Lions was a New York Times Book Review and named one of the 100 must-read books of 2021 by TIME.
If you have any queries about the prize or submission guidelines, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at the following address: info@thelondonmagazine.org
