COMPETITION

Exploring, celebrating, developing the written and spoken word.

South Downs Poetry Festival
2025 Poetry Competition

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, if Winter comes can Spring be far behind?

The Binsted Prize

PRIZES:

Overall winner:

£250 + Binsted Prize + publication in Poetry & All That Jazz magazine.

Runner-up:

£150 + publication in the Binsted Prize Anthology for highly commended poems.

Third place: £50 + publication in the Binsted Prize Anthology for highly commended poems.

We hope to organise a poetry evening in a South Downs Church in June 2025 when prize winners will be invited to read their poems, and the judge will give a reading.

The winning poem will also be published in the respected annual South Downs Poetry Festival magazine, Poetry & All That Jazz.

PAY HERE

PRIZES
1st place - £250
2nd place - £150
3rd place - £50

PRIZEWINNERS WILL BE INVITED TO A PUBLIC READING OF THE PRIZEWINNING POEMS AT A SOUTH DOWNS CHURCH ON SAT 7 JUNE. Details to follow soon.

Submission Guidelines and Award Rules

POEMS

Poems must be the original work of the named author and must not have been previously published or won a prize in any competition. Entries from any country are welcome.

Poems must not exceed 40 lines. No author names on poems - personal details to go on email only

Poems being submitted to other competitions can be accepted subject to withdrawal if another prize is awarded before winners in this competition are notified.

The judge will read all entries and their decision is final. No discussion or amendments. Copyright remains with the author.

SUBMISSION

Email only, no postal entries.

After making your payment, email your poems as an attachment (.doc, .docx, pdf, only) to sdpfcomp@gmail.com

Include in the body of the email:

Poet’s Name, Address and Phone Number, List of Titles, Number of Poems, Total Fees, & Payment Receipt Number.

NO ENTRY CAN BE ACCEPTED WITHOUT A PAYMENT RECEIPT NUMBER.

FEES

£5 for first poem and £4 thereafter. No limit on entries.

Please note:

The organisers accept no responsibility for entries that are incorrectly submitted or not delivered due to technical faults.

By entering the competition, entrants agree to accept and be bound by the rules of the competitons and the decisions of the judges.

Competition Judge:
Chris Hardy

Chris Hardy’s fifth poetry collection Key to the Highway was published by Shoestring Press. He has been highly commended in the National Poetry and Live Canon poetry competitions and won this year’s McLellan prize. He is the secretary of the Chichester Stanza. He is a musician in LiTTLe MACHiNe, ‘the greatest poetry and music band in the world’ (Carol Ann Duffy).