Are you thinking of entering a poetry competition? Here are some common errors and tips you may not be aware of.

I’ve entered my fair share of poetry competitions, and probably placed in fewer than my fair share. I’ve also been part of the organising committee for three of the UoA Poetry Club competitions. While I’m certainly not an expert in either organising or winning competitions, here are some tips I’ve come up with along the way.

• Read the rules.
• Know the deadline, but don’t let it control you.
• Don’t pay entry fees.
• Be true to yourself.
• Keep sharing.

1. Read the rules.

It sounds obvious, I know. But as a competition organiser, I can safely say there’s always at least one person whose submission blatantly ignores the competition rules. 

The most common one is the line limit or word count. Simply put, if your poem is too long, don’t waste your time sending it in. Sometimes, a few superfluous lines could be easily merged or edited out. Other times, cutting the poem would cripple it. That’s okay. A long poem is not a bad poem — sometimes, what you’re writing about is so important that you have to spend those extra words or lines on it. If you believe a shorter version of your poem would be incomplete, you’re better off looking for a different competition to enter it in, or saving it for non-competitive endeavours such as open mics or social media.

Other rules I’ve seen broken are:

• Submitting something blatantly in opposition to the competition theme (where applicable).
• Not including an author bio.
• Not including a full address for receiving prizes/certificates.
• Not following the requirements for font and font size.
• Submitting an incompatible file type. Apple users are most prone to this. When in doubt, a PDF is safest.
• Submitting a previously published poem (most competitions include social media and personal blogs).

2. Know the deadline —

Another obvious one, but something I’ll confess to being guilty of forgetting. I’ve sent in a few pre-midnight submissions, and I don’t recommend it. There’s always the risk of a technical difficulty or slow wifi getting in the way. Believe me, the stress isn’t worth it.

Make a plan. Jot down competition deadlines somewhere you know you’ll look at them again.

— but don’t let it control you.

If you’re making last-minute edits to a poem, chances are you’ll be dissatisfied with the poem in the long run, and so will the judges. I speak from personal experience. For any poem, a good rule of thumb is to set it aside for at least a few days, before looking at it with fresh eyes. 

Some of my most successful competition entries, such as ‘Ode To Old Books,’ which was a semifinalist in the the 2020 International Jack Grapes Poetry Prize, or ‘Mosaic City,’ which appeared on a public art installation by Youth Arts New Zealand, were poems that I had written a year or two prior to even thinking of submitting them to contests. 

So, next time you’re thinking of entering a competition, first have a look through your old poems, and see if there’s anything there which you feel might be well-suited. This also saves you a lot of time in preparing your entry!

3. Don’t pay entry fees.

My personal approach to competitions with hefty entry fees is to avoid them unless they’re a maximum of about $5.

Try Googling phrases like “free poetry competitions in [insert country name]” and steer clear of the tempting prize loads that often require upwards of $40 to enter. You can fall into the trap of spending quite a lot of money if you enter more than a handful of paid competitions, and it can really increase your dissatisfaction if your poem doesn’t place. I believe that poets shouldn’t be penalised for trying to get their work out there in the world. 

Why do some competitions charge so much? The main reason is usually to ramp up the amount of prize money they can offer.

Entry fees also go towards admin, advertising, judge fees, and the costs of any publications the winning works might appear in. As someone who’s organised several competitions, I can attest to the fact that there is quite a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. I can see why large poetry organisations would have trouble finding volunteers to administrate and judge their large-scale competitions.

4. Stay true to yourself.

Only submit what you are genuinely proud of, and represents the rest of your writing. While it’s good to read past winners (see point above), don’t try to reshape your writing into something it’s not. 

For example, the majority of my poems rhyme. I love rhyme. It comes naturally to my writing. Maybe I’ve spent too much time reading the old poets like Keats. I’ve been told by more than one poetry judge that rhyme is a thing of the past. Yet, I keep on submitting my rhyming poems. Why? Because they’re my poems, and I can’t bring myself to write them any other way. Several of my rhyming poems have eventually won competitions or been published in poetry books and journals.

My motto is, if they don’t like my poetry, they don’t get to have my poetry. I’m not being arrogant, I’m just taking ownership of my own writing style. The worst thing that could happen would be that I wrote a poem in a particular way just to please the judges, which then won and got published widely, creating a brand that I then had to live up to. Writing solely for the prize money is like selling your soul as a poet. Avoid it at all costs.

Lastly, remember that judges can change from year to year, and people’s tastes change too!

Writing solely for the prize money is like selling your soul as a poet. Avoid it at all costs.

5. Keep sharing.

The most important tip of all is this: keep sharing your poetry. Judges are human, and poetry is a subjective art. Don’t ever compare your poetry to someone else’s — the magic of poetry lies in its uniqueness. I promise you this: there is at least one fan for every single poem you write. You might simply not have submitted to the right fan.

I’ve submitted the same poem to several competitions before, with varying levels of success. Note that many competitions discourage simultaneous submissions, but you can always submit the poem after it’s been officially turned down. 

You can also share in a variety of other ways, including to poetry journals, on Instagram, in your own published or self-published anthologies, at open mics, or simply by sharing with family and friends. My most popular poems on Instagram happen to be ones that were rejected by competitions. 

Conclusion

That’s all my tips for entering a poetry competition. I may write a separate blog post in future about submitting to poetry journals and Instagram prompt contests, as those are another subject altogether. Poetry slams for spoken word poetry are also in a category of their own, and that’s an area in which I’m not very well-versed (pun intended).

I wish you luck with your writing and competing!

Do you have any tips and tricks for entering poetry competitions? Comment below!