Listen to the world’s best poetry read out loud.
Terms & Conditions
- This competition is run by The Poetry Archive, charity number 1093858, registered office Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street, Exeter, EX4 3LS.
- Only submissions completed through the online form on poetryarchive.org between June 1st and August 31st 2023 will be accepted.
- Open only to poets over 18 years of age.
- Each recording should be a video of yourself reading your single poem with a maximum length of 2 minutes reading time. We would like you to tell us your name, the name of the poem and then read the poem.
- Poems must be written during, and in response to, 2023. They can be on any theme, subject and in any style up to 2 minutes in reading time. We want future generations to look back and see the refrains, concerns, emotions of 2023 in all their diversity to build a true picture of poetic responses to our age.
- By submitting your poem you confirm you are the sole copyright holder for your work. The Poetry Archive will only share a poem when we have the copyright owner’s permission to do so. If the poem you choose is published elsewhere you might not be able to grant us permission to share your work – please talk to your publisher.
- We do not ask for exclusive rights to this work. By submitting a poem to the Poetry Archive you confirm that you have the authority to grant us copyright permissions to share your work through the Poetry Archive website, our YouTube and other social media channels.
- The Poetry Archive collects poetry written in English from around the world so we ask all poems to be recorded in English.
- All work submitted will only be played through the Poetry Archive websites (poetryarchive.org) or our YouTube channel, or marketed through our social media channels and websites. We will not sell, rent or loan your work to any third party without your prior written permission and all intellectual property belonging to poets will be respected at all times.
- The Poetry Archive retains the right to choose which poems we will share through our websites, YouTube and marketing channels. We maintain our poetry collections for general public enjoyment and for education purposes.
- Each year the Poetry Archive will assemble a panel of experts to choose their favourite poems to be part of a special annual collection, the Poetry Archive Now! WordView 2023 Collection. Each poet selected for this special collection will be offered £100 for permissions to display and share their poem on the Poetry Archive website.
- To ensure we can reach as many poets as possible we regret we must limit entries to one poem per poet and multiple entries received afterwards will be automatically disqualified - so take your time to get the best version you can. This competition will run every year so you can apply again each year.
- We regret no responsibility can be accepted for entries not received for whatever reason.
- We do not ask for exclusive rights to this work. By submitting a poem to the Poetry Archive Now competition you confirm that you have the authority to grant us copyright permissions to share your work through our Poetry Archive websites, our YouTube, newsletters, online collections and other official Poetry Archive social media channels.
- All poets whose work we would like to include in our online Virtual Poetry Festivals or curated collections will be contacted in advance to gain approval before we proceed.
- The Prize: Each year, after the deadline, the Poetry Archive will assemble a panel of experts to choose their favourite poems to be part of a special annual collection, the Poetry Archive Now: WordView Collection. Each poet selected for this annual collection will be offered £100 for permissions to display and share their poem on the Poetry Archive website. The Prize selection process consists of:
- A shortlist of the Top 50 poems to be chosen by a panel led by the Poetry Archive Director and a team of invited poets and poetry specialists and publishers (to be published).
- From the shortlist, a specialist panel will select the 20 poems to be included in the Poetry Archive Now 2023 Collection.
- Where poets are chosen for commendation by the panel they will be contacted by email.
- All other poets selected may still be contacted by email in future to be part of curated collections based on geography, style, theme etc as part of our work to raise the profile of as many poets as possible through our newsletters and marketing channels.
- At all times the Poetry Archive retains the right to choose which poems to publish. We always look for reasons to include poets in the Archive and no poet will be unreasonably excluded. We reserve the right to cancel or amend the competition and these terms and conditions without notice in the event of catastrophe or any actual or anticipated event outside the Poetry Archive's control.
- We regret we cannot enter into individual discussions or correspondence with poets. We are a very small team but we will do our best to provide information through our website and will update our FAQ’s in response to enquiries as they come in.
- By entering this competition and entrant is indicating their agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions.