Christmas 2021 Poetry Competition

We’re looking for new poems to feature in our forthcoming festive title Together for Christmas. As well as publication, you’ll win copies of the pamphlet and a cash prize.

The pamphlet will be an uplifting celebration of reunions and gatherings with family or friends – something that many of us have missed so much in recent times.

A PDF copy of this information can be downloaded here.

Timeline

The competition is now open for submissions and closes at midnight on 13^th August 2021.

Poems

Only one poem per poet please.  Your poem should be no longer than 37 lines. It must also be in English, new, unpublished, and not currently submitted elsewhere.

Entries

It’s free to enter. Email your poem to as a Word document or PDF file with your poem’s title and your own name as the file name. Please include your contact details in the body of the email.

Prizes

The winners will be selected for inclusion in our pamphlet. As well as publication, you will receive 20 copies of Together for Christmas and a cash prize of £75.

Judges

Entries will be judged by the Candlestick Press editorial team (Di Slaney and Kathy Towers). No correspondence will be entered into and the judges’ decision is final. The winners will be announced in September 2021 via social media.

Good luck! We look forward to reading your entries.

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Previous competition winners

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Getting Older Poem Competition

Winners

Commended Poets

Shortlisted Poets

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Snow Poem Competition

Winners

Highly commended poets

Shortlisted poets

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Breakfast Poem Competition

Winners

Shortlisted poets

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Cloud Poem Competition

First Prize

‘Hazy, Massed, Dappled’
Lesley Saunders

Second Prize

‘Flight’
Sarah Westcott

Highly Commended

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Micropoem competition

First Prize

Roz Goddard
@rozgoddard

Commended

Plus five additional runner-up prizes of a copy of The Twelve Poems of Christmas (Volume Seven) to