Submissions

Poetry London is a leading international magazine, where new names share pages with acclaimed contemporary poets. We also publish a wide range of poetry in translation.

The magazine is published in March, June and October. We receive a vast amount of submissions, so reading can take up to four months, and if your work is shortlisted, maybe even longer. You might find it helpful to read the magazine first, to see if your work is suitable.

The Poetry London Prize

The Poetry London Prize is a major, internationally renowned award for a single outstanding poem. Previous winners include Liz Berry, Niall Campbell, Romalyn Ante and Richard Scott. 

The 2025 Prize is now closed

Winners will be notified by the end of September 2025

Entries to the Poetry London Prize 2025, judged by Victoria Kennefick are now closed. We’d like to thank every writer that entered, and to be kept informed of future prizes, sign up to our mailing list below.

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The Poetry London Pamphlet Prize

The Poetry London Pamphlet Prize will help writers of all backgrounds and ages who are ready to take their work to the next level via publication with Poetry London Editions, the magazine’s new imprint.

The 2025 Prize is now closed

Winners will be notified by the end of January 2026

Entries to the Poetry London Pamphlet Prize 2025, judged by Andrew McMillan are now closed. We’d like to thank every writer that entered, and to be kept informed of future prizes, sign up to our mailing list below.

Stay updated on opportunities at Poetry London

Enter your email below to be kept up to date on all Poetry London Prizes, as well as all our latest news and announcements.

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Apprenticeship Scheme

Generously funded by The Fenton Arts Trust and Arts Council England, this is a scheme for talented emerging poets, of any age, who will each be matched with a prominent poet with proven experience in supporting the work of other writers.

Our Apprenticeship scheme is now closed

We are delighted to announce the two winners of the Poetry London Apprenticeship Scheme, generously funded by the Fenton Arts Trust and Arts Council England.

Freya Gillard is a young writer from Devon. She is a top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2023 and has had numerous poetry and articles published on the Poetry Society website. She is also a graduate of the BFI’s Storytelling Workshop, developing new voices in screenwriting from the South West.

Nasim Luczaj is a poet and Polish—English translator based in London. She is the author of HIND MOUTH (Earthbound Press) and the winner of the 2024 Queen Mary Wasafiri New Writing Prize for Poetry. Her work has been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2024 and the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize 2024, and appeared in publications including Prototype 5, Propel, Gutter, Datableed, Tentacular, SPAM zine, and Wet Grain. She was raised in the Polish Carpathians.

Nasim Luczaj and Freya Gillard will work with Pascale Petit to develop their poetry over the next few months in a series of meetings and workshops. Pascale Petit said ‘there’s passion and mystery in their work, which I thought exciting.’

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Workshops

Re-definitions: meaning-making against tyranny

Thursday 9th October 2025 • 7pm

This workshop is to challenge the dominant language and its model of policing. We will reflect on the work of poets who have written against the dictionaries that oppress us, including sam sax writing and Solmaz Sharif. The emergence of these poems in the past decade has come from Global South diaspora and queer writers, who are breaking their way out of the language that governs. We will discuss why a poet resisting hegemony must compose their own dictionary and we will write our own re-definition works.
Find out more about Re-definitions: meaning-making against tyranny

For The Record: (Re)Writing The Past

Thursday 27th March 2025 • 7pm

What does it mean to write hidden or obscured histories? What are the challenges? What are the responsibilities? Using as a springboard the words of Patricia Smith who indicated that ‘the job of the poet is to be a witness’, participants of this poetry workshop will be supported to start writing family stories, social histories and to explore what place folklore, magic and the Otherworld might have in this work.

Find out more about For The Record: (Re)Writing The Past

Dining with the Self, Familial and Ghosts

Tuesday 17th June 2025 • 6:30pm

In this workshop we’ll explore poems about food, and what they can show us of the self (think Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney, and Blackberrying by Sylvia Plath). We’ll also explore our unique relationship with food – however perhaps uncomfortable. How do we nourish or under-nourish ourselves when alone? How do we eat when not in company? Do we gobble our “girl dinner” without witness, in the grain of bad T.V light, from our laps? Or perhaps we make an occasion of dining alone – get out the best cutlery just because and sit at the table to quietly celebrate a centring of, or coming-back-to, the self. Is it simply protein quota, fuel?

We’ll explore the dinner table as a poetic space – populate it with family, friends, even ‘enemies’. What are the dining tables that remain in our memories, imagination, dreams; what meals, and who is around them?

Lastly, we’ll dine with ghosts, both personal and ‘famous’. We’ll seek guidance throughout from poets such as Victoria Kennefick, Safiya Sinclair, Jack Kerourac, and Sharon Olds.

Find out more about Dining with the Self, Familial and Ghosts

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Vacancies

Current vacancies to join the Poetry London team will be displayed here—to ensure you keep up to date with future opportunities sign up to our mailing list below. We particularly welcome applications from candidates from groups or backgrounds which are currently underrepresented in publishing.

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Enter your email below to be kept up to date on future vacancies at Poetry London, as well as all our latest news and announcements.

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