The Nature Poetry Competition

HowtoEnter

The term ‘Nature Poetry’ will be given a very wide interpretation by the judge. Closing date March 1st 2015.
Prizes

1st PRIZE £1000
2nd PRIZE £500
3rd PRIZE A Place on a Creative Writing Course at Ty Newydd in 2015 (worth £550)

Ty Newydd is Wales’ National Writers’ Centre and offers a variety of creative writing courses in the wonderful surroundings of the Lleyn peninsula (http://www.literaturewales.org/ty-newydd/). The prize does not include the cost of travel to and from the centre.

ADDITIONAL PRIZE, a personal tour with Mark Cocker of his most cherished wild life places in East Anglia.

Mark Cocker is one of Britain’s most celebrated writers on nature. He is the author of the magnificent Birds and People as well as the award-winning Crow Country and Birds Britannica. He writes and broadcasts regularly in national media and has maintained a wildlife column in the Guardian for more than 25 years.**

*The prize does not include the cost of travel to and from the centre.
** The prize does not include cost of travel or accommodation.

The winning poems will be published in The Rialto, Britain’s leading independent poetry magazine.
Judge

Simon Armitage


Simon Armitage, poet, broadcaster and writer is one of the most acclaimed and successful poets writing in English today. He has published more than twenty collections and pamphlets of poetry. His committed relationship with nature is apparent in, for example, Walking Home (2012) his account of his troubadour journey along the Pennine Way, and in the Stanza Stones project where seven of his poems have been carved in stone and now form a trail for walkers in West Yorkshire. He also edited, with Tim Dee, the anthology, The Poetry Of Birds, (Viking 2009). In 2010 he was awarded the CBE for services to poetry.
Submittingyourpoems

You can submit up to six poems in one batch, the first poem includes an administration fee.

If you wish to submit more than six poems you will need to make a second submission which will include a second submission fee.

Please note we require poems to be sent as either as a Adobe PDF or a Microsoft Word .doc or a .docx. Please paste all your poems into one file which you can upload on the submission page after you’ve made your payment. You must retain your Paypal Transaction ID and enter it on the form and fill in all the required fields.
EntryFees

£6 for your first poem £3.50 for each subsequent poem.
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CompetitionRules

Closing date of the competition is midnight on March 1st 2015
The Competition is open to anyone over the age of 18, other than Rialto team members or RSPB staff.
Poems must have a title and must be no more than 40 lines, excluding the title, and be typed in black ink on one side of A4.
Poems must be the original work of the entrant and must not have been published, self-published, or published on any web-site, or broadcast.
Poems are judged anonymously so the poet’s name, address etc., MUST NOT appear on the poem.
Poems must be written in English.
No corrections can be made to poems entered, nor can fees be refunded.
Entries cannot be returned.
If you require confirmation that your postal entry has arrived please enclose a stamped addressed postcard marked ‘Acknowledgement’.
Copyright of each poem remains with the poet but by entering the competition you give The Rialto and the RSPB the right to publish the winning poems both online and in printed media.
The judge’s decision is final and neither he nor the organisers will enter into any correspondence.
Prizewinners will be notified during May, and lists of the prizewinners and the long-listed contestants will be published on The Rialto website.
The competition organisers reserve the right to change the judge without notice and not to award prizes if in the judge’s opinion such an action is justified.
PostalEntriesIf you hate the internet or just find the technology and payment system intimidating and would prefer your entry to be on paper in an envelope you can download the leaflet and entry form here.