The Poetry Wales Award is our annual single-poem competition open to poets from anywhere in the world. We are grateful to Literature Wales for their sponsorship of the competition in the form of our first award prize of a stay at Tŷ Newydd writing centre.
Entries for the 2026 Award will be accepted from Monday 15th December 2025 to Monday 16th February 2026. Poets can submit up to five pieces of previously unpublished work for consideration.
Read on to find out everything you need to know to enter.
On this page
Key Dates
- 15th December 2025 – competition opens at 00:01 GMT
- 16th February 2026 – competition closes 23:59 GMT
- End of April 2026 – all entrants will have been contacted with results (subject to condition – if this deadline changes, all entrants will be notified before the end of April)
- May/June 2026 – Awarding Ceremony to be held
Prizes
FIRST AWARD WINNER
- £500
- Winner’s choice of either a course* at Literature Wales’ Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre or a Monday-Friday self-catered retreat at their dedicated writing retreat cottage, Nant in 2026
- A one year subscription to Poetry Wales
- Publication of the winning poem in a future issue of Poetry Wales.
SECOND AWARD WINNER
- £100
- A one year subscription to Poetry Wales
- Publication of the winning poem in a future issue of Poetry Wales.
THIRD AWARD WINNER
- £50
- A one year subscription to Poetry Wales
- Publication of the winning poem in a future issue of Poetry Wales.
10 HIGHLY COMMENDED POETS
- will be invited to read at our Awarding Ceremony, and have their poems published in an online booklet on poetrywales.co.uk,
Prizes cannot be exchanged for monetary value.
*The First Award winner is entitled to a choice between a course at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre or a Monday-Friday self-catered retreat at the dedicated writing retreat cottage, Nant, in 2026, courtesy of Literature Wales. Winners are responsible for their own travel arrangements and costs. Literature Wales reserve the right to exclude courses from the prize, for reasons including but not limited to the course requiring an assessed application process, courses being administrated by other organisations, and courses being sold out.
Judged by Bethany Handley
We are delighted to welcome Bethany Handley as our judge for the Poetry Wales Award 2026. Bethany is an award-winning writer, poet and disability activist from Monmouthshire. Named one of the UK’s ten most influential disabled people in politics, law, and media by the Shaw Trust 2024, she campaigns for disability rights and better access to nature. An Ambassador for Country Living’s Access for All campaign and Ramblers Cymru, her debut poetry pamphlet Cling Film was published by Seren in 2025. She co-edited Beyond / Tu Hwnt (Lucent Dreaming, 2025), a bilingual anthology of Welsh Deaf and disabled writers. Her work has been featured by BBC One, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4, the Poetry Foundation, The Bookseller, Country Living, the Forward Book of Poetry 2026, The Guardian, and more. My Body is a Meadow, her debut non-fiction book, will be published by Headline in May 2026.
Bethany says:
“I’m looking for poems that excite or surprise me, that render life’s everyday mundanity extraordinary. I’m drawn to poems that are brave and formally innovative, that experiment, and celebrate the experiences of those on the margins. Above all, I want to read poems that linger: work that unsettles, reshapes how I see the world, and remains with me long after reading.”
How to Enter
We are accepting entries to the competition via Submittable, the portal that we use to accept submissions to the magazine. It is secure, safe, and easy to use – with a handy guide for beginners here, if you need it.
If you are not able to use Submittable due to accessibility reasons, email us at award@poetrywales.co.uk, and we’ll work together to find a solution.
Fees and Exemptions
As always, the competition entry fee is £5/poem, with a maximum number of five poems per entry. Competition fees allow us to continue to run this annual competition, as well as supporting the work the magazine does all year round.
Entry fees are waived for those who qualify for our Concessions subscriptions – aka those in higher education and/or those with an annual household income of 16,000 GBP or under. We do not require proof that you are eligible for free entry – we trust you.
The entry fee is also waived for subscribers to Poetry Wales magazine. To enter for free as a subscriber, go to the Subscriber’s Area.
To enter as a non-subscriber, choose one of the below options and follow the instructions.
Terms and Conditions of Entry
Before entering, make sure that you have read and understood the terms and conditions of entry here (opens a new page).
Previous Years
Read the winning and shortlisted poems from the last six years
