How to Win a Poetry Competition: What I've Learned From Reading Thousands of Entries

Tips & advice to improve your chances of winning a poetry prize

For several years now, I've worked as an assisstant judge (also known as a 'sifter', or 'reader') for a major poetry prize, and I've worked on some other poetry competitions besides. I see the entries first and decide what goes through to the next round. I've seen thousands of competition entries and I know what gets picked and what doesn't.

Competition wins often launch a poet's career and always boost their reputation, not to mention the cash prizes. If you're thinking of entering a poem into poetry prize, here is some advice to help your work stand out from the pack with the best possible chance.

Get Good

The number 1 reason why I reject poems is simply this: they just aren’t good enough.

When I’m judging, it’s very clear which are the prize-grade poems and which are not. There are surprisingly few mid-level outliers. In terms of quality, it’s typically 0 or 100, and the only difference between the low-tier entries and the high-tier entries is that the high-tier entrants have clearly learned more about writing and have been doing it for longer. Craft really shows. The fact is that most entrants just aren’t ready yet. But, importantly, they can become ready if they learn, get help, and practice.

The non-prize-grade poems generally have the same sorts of features: the line breaks are random, the images are limited or unimaginative, they explain what they are about rather than show it, they contain clichés, they have grammatical errors, the punctuation is wrong, they’re too short and finish before they really get anywhere, or they’re too big and carry on long after they should have finished, the voice lacks confidence, the style lacks control, there is little technical precision, they may be affected or pretentious, and often they’re just boring. On average, I’d estimate that about 85%-90% of the poems I see are like this. So, if your entry doesn’t run afoul of these problems, then good news - you’re already in the top 15%-10%.

On reflection, the lack of mid-level entries in a competition shouldn’t surprise us. When we start off writing we begin with lots of enthusiasm. Many people enter poems into competitions even though they haven’t been writing for very long. I did it when I started; most of us will. Inevitably, these poems get rejected, and when this happens, people either give up or they go away and get good. Once they get good, they then go back to entering competitions and the difference is extraordinary.

So, do some writing courses, get a mentor, join a workshop, read lots and lots of poetry. Basically, have a training montage.

Polish your poetry…but not too much

One of the reasons why I reject poems is because they’re too workshopped. A judge can tell when a poem has gone through the workshopping process one too many times, because these poems all have the same lifeless feel. Everything that made the first draft of the poem unique and exciting has been buffed out along with its weaknesses, and the poem has become generic. Those poems are ‘good’ I suppose, but so what? There are hundreds of other ‘good’ poems just like them.

So, my tip here is leave some rough edges. Polish your poem, but make sure that it retains a bit of character which makes it stand out from the rest. Professional Critique can help you strike the right balance.

Don't go on too long

I see a lot of poems which top the max line limit and which also have extremely long lines. In these cases, it’s obvious that the poet has submitted a poem which in reality is much longer than the limit allows, but they’ve shoehorned it in as hard as they can anyway. It’s a bad sign when I think a poem is over and then scroll down to find that there is still considerably more poem. I’ll be frank. When I open a file and see a poem like that, I don’t want to read it. If your poem is too long for the line limit, submit a different poem, or enter a different competition with a longer line limit. Don’t work against yourself.

Better yet, edit it. In these cases, there’s almost always dead weight that can be cut. So, get the scissors out. What don’t you need in the poem? What can you condense? Don’t say in 20 words what you could say in 2. Brook no redundancies. Make the turns of phrase tighter, make the images sharper and more direct. Jettison everything that you don’t absolutely need.

There’s nothing wrong with submitting a long poem (provided that it’s within the line limit) but there is something wrong when a poem feels longer than it actually is; and the thing that makes poems feel long isn’t the length, it all the unnecessary flabby bits.

Avoid the topics of grief, death, aging, cancer, war, broken or failed relationships, and identity

Why? Not because there’s anything wrong with these topics in and of themselves, but because these are the most common topics I see when I’m judging. It’s not that these are ‘bad’ topics, in fact I’ve selected poems on these topics myself. But, I selected them for the quality of the writing, I couldn't care less about the topic.

People usually send their hardest-hitting poems to a competition because they think that’s going to make their poem stand out. An important topic makes for an important poem, right? But here’s the thing, if I’ve just read 399 poems about death and your death poem is number 400, I will be so bored of death that even if your poem is actually pretty good, I probably won’t take any interest in it. If your poem is about anything else, then the judge is more likely to take notice.

A prize-winner can be about any topic at all, it doesn't have to be the most hard-hitting or the most universal of subjects. In fact, my favourite poems are always the surprising ones. So, when you’re deciding which poem to submit to a competition, take a chance on an oddball. Send the weird poem, the experiment, the fancy, the whim, and leave the grief and war poems on the shelf. If you have a poem you’d like to submit but you just don’t think it’s a ‘competition poem’. Send it. A poetry competition is about quality of writing first and foremost, but it’s also a numbers game; the rarer and more unique your poem is, the more likely it is to stand out from the crowd.

Submit something happy

The topics listed above are all miserable, and while ‘identity’ might seem like a neutral topic when compared to grief, failed relationships, cancer or death, the identity poems I read when I judge are rarely ever joyous. As you can imagine, ploughing through all these grim poems can get pretty depressing. So, when I come across a happy poem, I tend to favour it. If my final choice comes down to an excellent happy poem or an equally excellent sad poem, I will probably take the happy one just because it’s more interesting.

Now, I’m not saying don’t write sad poems, or don’t write death poems. Write on whatever topic you want; any topic could be a competition winner, there are no ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ topics. But, if you have a choice between submitting a tear-jerker or something else, then maybe think twice.

Don’t get too personal

This is the number 2 reason why I reject poems. People really bear their souls in their competition entries. I see elegies for recently lost loved ones, victims processing their trauma, dirty secrets, desperate cries for help, the rages of spurned lovers…all manner of personal disclosures, from the heart-warming to the down-right disturbing. Those poems aren’t winners.

Why? Because any poems I choose must be fit for public display. If you write a poem whose sole function is to process trauma and to heal your own wounds, then that's a great thing for you, and I sincerely commend it. But, ask yourself: should that poem really be aired to the public?

First of all, the problem is an ethical one. It wouldn’t be right for me to air someone else’s dirty laundry for thousands of other people to see. Even if someone submits a poem with their full consent today, if they won, might they then go on to regret it? Personally, I couldn’t do that to someone. Equally, I can’t justifiably impose anything that might be profoundly upsetting upon the reading public. No one needs to see that. So, I don’t let poems like that through to the next round.

Second of all, the problem is an artistic one. A winning poem may very well be on a personal subject (plenty of them are) but in a winning poem, the personal subject matter is only one of its many engaging aspects. I’d even hazard to say that the personal content of a poem is the least interesting thing about it. Alongside its personal content, a winning poem also demonstrates mastery of the language, a sense of literary performance, impressive originality, and an illuminating vision that contributes to literature. A winning poem does so much more than just disgorge the poet’s pain.

Don’t write a ‘competition poem’

Don’t be tempted to engineer a poem that ticks as many ‘competition’ boxes as it can, because a poem like that is formulaic. To a judge's expert eyes, poems that follow a winning formula are unoriginal and sterile, which does not impress.

When I’m judging a batch of poems there are always at least 2 or 3 that are obvious copies of poems that won other competitions in other years. Whenever I encounter such a knock-off, I reject it, even if it’s good. The judge is looking for a new winner, not a repeat of an old one. Not only that, but the judge also has the integrity of the competition to uphold; if an awarding body gave prizes to the same old formulaic stuff every year, then the prestige of the prize wouldn’t be worth a button.

The worse thing about formulaic poems though, is that they stink of cynicism, and any poetry judge, as a lover of poetry, will be disinclined to select a poem which is cynical about poetry.  

Some more don'ts

I see some strange things when I judge, and I’ve rejected poems for all sorts of weird, unexpected reasons. So here are a handful of things to avoid.

Don’t give me life advice

I see more than a few poems which are pretty much just extended versions of motivational posters, reminding me to live life to the fullest or to love with all my heart or something. That positivity is nice, but if that’s all the poem sets out to do then the result is very boring. A poem, certainly a prize-winning poem, must be more than a extended slogan. Moreover, some of that advice can be quite stinging rather than positive, which is not appreciated.

Don’t try to manipulate me into selecting your entry

Entrants usually try to do this in a few stock ways, there’s:

• The Guilt Trip. I bet you’re not even going to choose this poem; don’t you feel bad for not picking me?

• Shock Tactics. Here’s a topic so edgy and authentic that only a heartless person could reject it.

• Pandering. I know what you want to see so here’s a poem that will push all of your buttons.

• And (in my opinion, the weirdest of them all) Peacocking. Here's a poem about what a good poet I am, because clearly you don't get it and need convincing.

No one appreciates being the object of mind games, so don’t waste the judge's time playing them.

Don’t submit a short story pretending it’s a poem

There’s prose poetry and then there’s just prose. The judge can tell the difference, so don't even try it. When I see entries like this I assume that the entrants think they’re doubling their odds by submitting the same piece of writing to both fiction and poetry competitions. But this is never going to work, because judges aren’t so easily fooled. The prize is for poetry, not stories. End of.

Don’t use weird fonts

Typewriter font and cursive fonts like Bradley Hand are ones I see a lot, as well as good old Comic Sans. If you use one of these fonts it gives the strong impression that you’re leaning on the font to do much of the signifying work for you (and upon reading the poem, this always turns out to be the case). A good poem doesn’t need an edgy font to do the hard work for it. When I see a poem that’s in a weird font, it immediately predisposes me against it. Stick to the old faithfuls: Times New Roman, Garamond, Arial, Calibri etc.

Don’t put your name on the submission

Somebody always does it. If you put your name on your prize entry then it is automatically disqualified, I won’t even read it. This is the worst reason why I reject poems and I hate doing it, it's such a waste.

Don't break the rules

This is so incredibly important, There’s no point in jeopardising your entry by not sticking to the rules. Break the rules, get disqualified. For example, one of the most important rules is line count, it’s non-negotiable, but someone will always go over it. Read the rules and eligibility criteria carefully to make sure that your entry adheres to them.

Don’t give up

Poetry competitions, especially the big ones, receive many thousands of entries, and so most of us who enter them will not be successful, even if our entries are of a very high standard. There can only be so many winners, and the judge has to pick something, even if they really want to give a prize to them all.

Still, the only way to stand a chance of winning a competition is to enter one. Every writer’s life is full of rejection and so we learn to be resilient. Try again next year.

Some Dos

On a more positive note, here are some things that I really like to see when I'm judging.

Do make me laugh

Few and far between are the poems that make me chuckle. Most entries are such downers that I really appreciate a good laugh when I get it. Funny poems are rare, so when it happens they really do stand out. Poetry is too serious too much of the time and it’s not as if humour is against the rules. Enter a funny poem, it won’t disadvantage you, in fact it might have the opposite effect.

Do use form, rhyme and meter

 

Similarly, very few of the prize entries I see use form. It’s almost all unrhymed free verse. A formal poem stands out, and if the writer has got the form right, it impresses me. So, go ahead and use form, rhyme and meter, the sifter won’t dismiss you as old-fashioned. Personally, I’m itching to give a prize to a formal poem and I can’t be the only one.

Do send difficult poems

I like to think; show me something challenging and I’ll be jazzed about it. But personal tastes aside, remember that poetry is an art form, and if any art form is to survive then its standards need to remain high. That means pushing boundaries and not getting too comfortable. A bit of difficulty keeps poetry alive and well, and since competitions play a vital role in maintaining the culture of poetry, the judge won’t take prejudice against your poem if it doesn’t have absolute mass-appeal. If anything, we poets generally prefer a poem that makes us work, it’s those poems that tend to matter and endure, while the easy ones are quickly forgotten.

Do be yourself

Write about the things you want to write about, not about the things you think will win a prize. And, write in the way you want to write, not in the way you think will win. I love it when I see a poem which is unabashedly full of character, or a poem that totally defies my expectations. I get excited by those poems. So, be yourself, the judge might just love it.

Are you getting a poem ready to submit to a competition? I provide expert feedback on your poems, helping you to edit and improve. Receive feedback on a single poem for only £25 with Single Poem Feedback. Or, if you're submitting multiple poems, you might be more interested in my Mentoring service.

Maybe you're just starting out in poetry. Then you might be interested in my Core Course instead, everything you need to start writing poetry in a self-paced, 12-part course.

If you'd like to read some poems of my own, these days I publish all of my new work for free on my Substack, Solarion, along with criticism and some other bits.