Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.
FAQs
Go to the 'Submit your poem for 2025' section and fill out the submission form. On the final page of the submission form upload the file of your video entry and you're done!
When filling out the submission form, you will be asked for details about yourself, then about your poem and the final page will allow you to upload a file.
When your entry has been completed, you should receive an auto-generated acknowledgement. Please check your junk and spam folders for acknowledgements if they do not arrive in your inbox.
If you do not receive an auto generated acknowledgement, please send an email to info@poetryarchive.org and we can check if there has been a problem. We a small team and our working days are usually Tuesday to Thursday so it may take us a little while to get back to you.
We will email you to congratulate you and let you know when the winners’ collection each year is published on the Poetry Archive website.
If you do not hear from us you have not been selected for the final twenty in this year's competition.
It takes us a little while to process applications as they come in and transfer them to YouTube. We aim to upload videos within 14 days of receipt.
We think home-made videos via phones, or via your PC, Mac or laptop are fantastic. Last year we loved those little windows into the places you come from, whether they were indoors or outside. If you can’t gain help from someone else you can select your ‘stage’ and sit with your hand held device / laptop in front of you and record your whole poem in one take. So long as we can hear you clearly and see your face – we will be happy and so will our visitors who come to listen to your poems. YouTube has some great advice on how to make a great home-made video. Try this video to get started (after reading their privacy notice). You can read or recite your poem from a book or piece of paper, you can be seated, standing, in a full shot or just a head-and-shoulders. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable and speak clearly so we can fully enjoy your poem.
You can submit a video that has you reading but does not feature you on camera, simply use a static image to accompany the audio, or get creative and think of other ways.
There may be some exceptional situations where we will be able to help you enter a voice only poem if you don't know how to make it a video - please send us an email if you want to find out more.