Poetry Wales Award 2025 judge and poet Jeremy Dixon reflects on what he learned about how to win a poetry competition – and how it’s not too different to RuPaul’s Drag Race…
Judging the Poetry Wales Award 2024-25 has been one of the highlights of my poetry life so far! I learned so much about poetry and competitions though reading all the entries that I thought I would pass on a few (slightly tongue-in-cheek) observations.
In future I’ve decided to think of any poem I submit to a competition as a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race making their first appearance on a poetic runway: the poem must be able to swagger down that entry list and into the spotlight of a competition with a huge amount of confidence and self-belief. The poem has done all the work beforehand and knows that it deserves to be there and can win the prize (whether it does or not!)
Stand out from the crowd
A competition poem should aim to be unique and stand out and to not knowingly copy any other look. The poem has to be complete and correct, leaving no room for improvement, no hems showing or wigs incorrectly glued. A competition is not like submitting a manuscript to a publisher or a poem to a magazine. In a competition you are an anonymous number and there is no opportunity for anyone to suggest edits or tweaks to your poem, so it must exist as a perfectly formed piece of work from the start. It goes without saying that you should only submit your best work, and if you don’t have your best work available for this particular runway, then don’t send anything down it!
Enter purse first
The poem’s title should be as fabulous as the poem’s content, so spend time on the title and remember it will be the first thing of yours that the judge/s reads. Dazzle, intrigue, surprise or worry them – but make the judge/s remember your title. They will probably be sent an alphabetical list of poems so make sure your title stands out from the rest and that it is doing the work! For example 16% of all poem titles that I read for the Poetry Wales Award began with just one of five words: How, When, I, A and The! Just imagine the lines and lines of database cells that all started in the same way. I would consider changing a title just for competition purposes as a means of gaining attention – glitter and rhinestones are there for a reason!
Serve!
The poem’s content should be as fabulous as the poem’s title. Your poem should serve and leave the judge/s gagging! How it serves is up to you, it could serve quietly, it could serve boldly, it could serve in a way that it doesn’t even look like it is serving. Really consider the poems theme and make sure that it relates to the rules of the competition. Are content warnings needed for your poem? If so, is that poem suitable for the competition or could it still work by adapting the outfit so that CWs are not needed? You should only include song titles in a competition poem, never quote any song lyrics as this will bring up copyright issues and will probably mean that the organisers can’t publish the poem. Similarly, if you submit an after poem, I would include a footnote stating exactly which poet and/or poem has inspired yours so the judge/s can check the references.
A memorable finale
As your poem reaches the end of the runway, don’t allow it to fall on the final turn (unless you’re Naomi Campbell in Vivienne Westwood) and make sure you don’t fumble the last line! Make that last line so memorable that the judge/s are still thinking about it even when the next poem hits the stage.
Know your history
Finally, research the competition and judge/s, read former competition winning poems, follow the rules, meet line length, submit the correct format, don’t be disqualified, do all the work necessary, read your poem out loud beforehand and submit by the deadline. Try and judge your poem impartiality – if your poem truly dazzles and impresses you then it has a good chance of standing out in the line up flouncing down that poetic runway!
The Poetry Wales Award is back for 2026
Open from 15th December 2025 to 16th February 2026 and judged by Bethany Handley, our single-poem competition is open to entries from poets anywhere in the world.
Prizes include publication in Poetry Wales and, thanks to sponsorship from Literature Wales, a place on a Tŷ Newydd course in 2026.
