Other Literary Competitions

The Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition

2008 JUDGES
Michael Longley
Peter Sansom
Ann Sansom

• Michael Longley is a central figure in contemporary poetry. A winner of major prizes, including the Whitbread and the T S Eliot prizes, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and recipient of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. His Collected Poems was published by Cape in 2007.

• Peter Sansom and Ann Sansom, co-directors and co-editors of The Poetry Business, are published by Carcanet and Bloodaxe.

Entrants should send a collection of poems
– between 20 and 24 pages.

Before entering the Competition please make sure you have read the Conditions of Entry on the Poetry Business website at http://www.poetrybusiness.co.uk/competition.aspx.

Entry Form - You can print this out from the website, to fill in and return with your entry. Or you may contact The Poetry Business for full details to be posted to you (give them your name and address) or sent to you in PDF format.

The Competition will be judged in two stages:

1. The judges will select up to five manuscripts, to be published in pamphlet form as individual small collections. Prize money of £1,000 will be shared equally among these winners, who will also receive 20 complimentary copies of their own pamphlet.

2. Each of these first stage winners can then within one month submit an extended manuscript. Depending on the judges’ opinion, one of these submissions may be chosen as a final winner, to be published as a full length collection. The final winner will receive 20 complimentary copies and royalties, as well as their share of the prize money. There will be full publicity and national distribution.

All winners will be invited to a launch reading in Sheffield, and their work will be showcased on The Poetry Business website and in The North magazine.

Entry fee: £24
(North subscribers: £20. You can subscribe when you enter the Competition)

Closing Date: last posting NOVEMBER 29TH 2008

Results

The winners will be announced in January 2009. The pamphlets will be published in the spring, the winning book in the autumn. To order the book at the pre-publication price of £8 inc p&p, enclose the money with your entry. (If there is no overall winner, purchasers will receive pamphlets.) Sets of previous winners (’98-’07) are available (some pamphlets are in short supply; alternatives may be sent).