
Poem of the Month
A monthly poetry competition for the bold, the beautiful,
the bizarre, and the brilliant!
THE BENEFITS
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£100 prize for the winning poem
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£3 per poem, £6 for three (see where the money goes below)
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Publication across social platforms
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Judge: Stuart Bartholomew (VERVE Poetry Press & Festival Founder)
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Assistant Judge: Hayley Frances (Co-Director)
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AI-Generated Poems? Get outta here
THE TIMELINE
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1st of each month: Submissions open
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20th of each month: Submissions close.
(No, we will not read late poems. We are poets, not wizards.) -
End of Month: Winner announced + winning poem featured on our website, socials and sent out to *thousands* of poets, publishers, other poetry industry people and, dare-we-say it normal people subscribed to VERVE.
THE RULES
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Poetry doesn’t have to be serious. It doesn’t have to be traditional. It doesn’t even have to make sense. It can also be everyone of these things.
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We haven't got all the time in the world, so - as standard - for the purpose of ensuring we are able to read everything that comes through to us;
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40 Lines is the MAX we can accept for poems.
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Every poem needs to be saved and uploaded as PDF or doc.x file.
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No names on poems.
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Come as you are. Write what you want. Make it POETRY!
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Submissions open November1st.
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Submissions close November 20th.
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Spread the word. Tag a poet. Tell a friend. Start a movement.
THE MONEY
This incentive is not money making for us. It's not about making a profit or taking the limited funds poets / writers / artists make. Submission money is split between paying the winner of POEM OF THE MONTH and funding our FREE community poetry projects.
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Open Door community poetry open mic.
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The Collective.
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Poetry Mentorship.
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Free children's & young people's events at our annual festival.





