Mslexia

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Mslexia Women's Poetry Competition

Mslexia Poetry Competition 2013

The competition is for unpublished poems of any length and in any style by women poets.

1st Prize: £2,000

Plus two optional extras: A week's writing retreat at Cove Park* and a mentoring session with the editor of Poetry Review*

2nd Prize: £400
3rd Prize: £200

17 runners up win £25 each. All winning poems will be published in issue 59 of Mslexia, published in September 2013.

Judge: Kathleen Jamie

Closing date: 17 June 2013

Entry fee: £7 for up to three poems.

Please make sure you have read the rules before submitting your entry.

If you would like to receive reminders about the competition, click here to sign up to the Mslexia Updates mailing list.

ENTER THE COMPETITION

* PRIZE TERMS
▪ Acceptance of any element of the prize is optional. If the winner is unable to attend the retreat or mentoring session, we will need to be informed as soon as possible.
▪ The date of the Cove Park retreat is to be agreed between Cove Park and the competition winner. The retreat is accommodation only.
▪ The date of the mentoring afternoon with the editor of Poetry Review is to be agreed between the editor and the competition winner.
▪ The winner is responsible for any other expenses involved in attending the Cove Park retreat and the mentoring afternoon (e.g. travel, food, etc.). These prizes must be taken before 31 December 2014.

NEW! POETRY WRITING WORKSHOPS

This year's specially-commissioned writing workshops are devised by the wonderful poet and tutor Deryn Rees-Jones. Designed to help you generate work to send in to the competition, the first workshop is available now!

Workshop 1: A Conversation with the Possible
Workshop 2: The Glose
Workshop 3: Coming soon

Judge: KATHLEEN JAMIE

'I'll be looking for a poem that has energy (which is not the same as noise). I'll be seeking a poem which shows the tug and pull of language, written by a poet who has listened to what the poem wants to be.'

Kathleen Jamie won a Gregory Award at the age of 19, and has always been a writer. Her first book was published when she was 20. She writes poetry in Scots and English; her nine collections have between them garnered two Forward Poetry Prizes, two Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prizes, three Scottish Arts Council Book Awards, three TS Eliot Award nominations – plus a Costa Prize for her most recent collection, The Overhaul (Picador). She is also an acclaimed author of several travelogues; her recent narrative nonfiction, which includes the wonderful Sightlines (Sort Of Books), is focused on the natural world. Described as 'one of the most urgently relevant of current poets', she lives in Scotland with her husband and two children and is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Stirling.

ON WINNING

'I had absolutely no expectation of being shortlisted let alone winning. In fact I only entered because my partner kept badgering me to do so.'

Read what 2012's top three winners have to say about being placed in the Mslexia Women's Poetry Competition, and what it means to them and their writing careers.

Read more »

POEtry pAmphlet competition

For the second year, and in conjunction with Seren Books, we are running a pamphlet competition for short collections of 20-24 pages of 18-20 poems, open to any woman poet who has not previously had a full-length collection published. The prize is publication of the pamphlet by Seren Books plus £250.
More information »

Last year's winning pamphlet, Shadow Dispatches by Polly Atkin (left), is available to buy for just £5.
Click here »

NINE years of the Mslexia Poetry Competition – THe previous winners

• Clare by Jo Haslam (Gillian Clarke – 2012)
• The War Years by Jane Satterfield (Jo Shapcott – 2011)
• The widower and his clothes by Margaret Livingston (Vicki Feaver – 2010)
• The Inland Waterways (IW) by Sarah Roby (Ruth Padel – 2009)
• A Song of Jean by Sibyl Ruth (Carol Ann Duffy – 2008)
• Too close by Ann Alexander (U A Fanthorpe and R V Bailey – 2007)
• For a plain man by Marianne Burton (Wendy Cope – 2006)
• Buffalo mozzarella by Polly Clark (Jo Shapcott – 2005)
• Women by Polly Clark (Selima Hill – 2004)