Magma poetry competition

Magma Poetry Competition

MAGMA’S 2016-17 POETRY COMPETITIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR YOUR PRIZE-WINNING LONG AND SHORT POEMS!



We are very excited to announce that award-winning poet Jane Draycott is the Judge for the Judge’s Prizefor poems of 11 to 50 lines and she will be reading all entries – there are no sifters. The Editors’ Prize is judged by a panel of five Magma Editors and is for poems of up to 10 lines. The prize money for both competitions is the same, so double your chances and try your luck at both.

First prize for the Judge’s and Editors’ Prize £1000, second prize £300 and third prize £150. The six prize-winning poems will be published in Magma, and there will also be five special mentions for the Judge’s Prize and for the Editors’ Prize – each will receive £15. Winning and commended poets will read their poems at a Magma Competition Event in March next year.

The entry fees are £5 for the first poem, £4 for the second and £3.50 for the third and each subsequent poem. Magma magazine subscribers benefit from reduced fees: £4 for the first poem, £3 for the second, and £2.50 for the third and each subsequent poem. You can subscribe to Magma from £18.50 via our Get Magma page. The competition closes on 16 January 2017.

Jane Draycott knows a thing or two about writing prize-winning poetry. Her latest collection Over (Carcanet) was shortlisted for the 2009 T S Eliot Prize. Nominated three times for the Forward Prize for Poetry, her first two full collections Prince Rupert’s Drop and The Night Tree (Carcanet/OxfordPoets) were both Poetry Book Society Recommendations. Her new translation of the 14th century dream-vision Pearl (2011), was a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation and was a Stephen Spender Prize-winner. The Occupant is forthcoming from Carcanet in November.

We asked Jane what she’s looking for in a prize-winning poem. This is what she told us:

“Strong poems give all the appearance of knowing exactly what they’re doing from start to finish, and that comes often from alert revision, discovering what’s really at the heart of your first draft. But I’ll be looking especially too for poems which move some real distance in their short span – no matter how quietly – where the poem itself has climbed into the driving seat, taking not just its reader but its writer too on an unpredictable journey.”

Good luck!



Please read the Competition Rules and Guidelines carefully before submitting.

Click here to find out more about the Magma Poetry Competition 2016/17 and enter your poems