2021 Open Poetry Competition
Congratulations to our 2021 Open Poetry Shortlisted Entries
An Alembic on the Threshold | Hélène Demetriades |
Aura | Mark Totterdell |
Breckland Flint | Samuel Prince |
Dear Natalie | Angela Howarth Martinot |
Distant Guns | Katherine Laycock |
Epiphyte | Elizabeth Rowe |
Fossils | Felicity Conneely |
Frost on Cobwebs | Fiona Shillito |
Germ Wild air, world-mothering air | Stella Body |
Girl in a Landscape | Maggie Wadey |
In the morning | Shaun Gardiner |
July Carol | Lynn Caldwell |
Links | PWKeeble |
March Poem | Emilie Jelinek |
Miner | Nicolette Golding |
Notes on how to pack | David Underdown |
On Loughrigg | Arthur W Allen |
Pomegranate | Maggie Wadey |
Pyrford Church | Nick Bowman |
Safari into the Rift | Elaine Lambert |
Still some way to go, Mother Rosa | Christopher Beck |
The Big Bang Theory | Emilie Jelinek |
The Glistening | Amanda Gravett |
The Moth | Julie Shackman |
The Shadow Butterfly | Carolyn Gillespie |
The sum of its parts | DWEvans |
Time to Heal i.m.Dr Arthur Brock | Judith Wozniak |
Waiting For The Sumitomo Bank To Open | Sandra Mary Chambers |

Author, poet and playwright, Owen Sheers has won the Somerset Maugham and Wilfred Owen Poetry Awards and has twice been the recipient of the Wales Book of the Year. His BAFTA-nominated film-poem The Green Hollow won three BAFTA Cymru awards, including Best Writer. Owen is Professor in Creativity at Swansea University and has been a Writer in Residence for the Wordsworth Trust and the Welsh Rugby Union.
We are delighted to announce that the 1st prize in our International Open Poetry Competition will again this year be £1000! Second and third prizes will also remain at £500 and £250 respectively. Plus an opportunity to win a Local Prize of £100.
Entries to the Open Poetry Competition must not be longer than 35 lines. The poems can be about any subject, and must be anonymous.
Please read the Terms & Conditions carefully to ensure you entry is accepted.