"One of the career milestones for very many poets of note has been winning the prestigious Poetry Business competition." - Ann-Marie Fyfe. 

2008 JUDGES

Michael Longley
Peter Sansom
Ann Sansom

• Michael Longley is a central figure in contemporary poetry. A winner of major prizes, including the Whitbread and the T S Eliot prizes, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and recipient of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. His Collected Poems was published by Cape in 2007.
• Peter Sansom and Ann Sansom, co-directors and co-editors of The Poetry Business, are published by Carcanet and Bloodaxe.

Entrants should send a collection of poems
– between 20 and 24 pages.

Before entering the Competition please make sure you have read the Conditions of Entry

Entry Form You can print this out, to fill in and return it with your entry. Or you may contact us for full details to be posted to you (give us your name and address). We are no longer able to accept card details by post, but continue to accept cheques drawn on a UK bank. If you wish to pay using your credit or debit card, please follow the links below to pay via PayPal.

The Competition will be judged in two stages:
1. The judges will select up to five manuscripts, to be published in pamphlet form as individual small collections.
Prize money of £1,000 will be shared equally among these winners, who will also receive 20 complimentary copies of their own pamphlet.
2. Each of these first stage winners can then within one month submit an extended manuscript.
Depending on the judges’ opinion, one of these submissions may be chosen as a final winner, to be published as a full length collection.
The final winner will receive 20 complimentary copies and royalties, as well as their share of the prize money. There will be full publicity and national distribution.

All winners will be invited to a launch reading in Sheffield, and their work will be showcased on The Poetry Business website and in The North magazine.

Entry fee: £24
(North subscribers: £20. You can subscribe when you enter the Competition)

Competition entry fees can be paid securely online by using the PayPal links below. If you use this method, please enclose your payment receipt with your entry form - if you do not, we may be unable to process your entry.

• North subscribers, pay here.
• If you are not subscribed to The North, do so here (UK customers) or here (ROW) or pay full competition fees here.
  

Closing Date: last posting NOVEMBER 29TH 2008

Results
The winners will be announced in January 2009. The pamphlets will be published in the spring, the winning book in the autumn. To order the book at the pre-publication price of £8 inc p&p, enclose the money with your entry or pay by PayPal here. (If there is no overall winner, purchasers will receive pamphlets.)

Sets of previous winners (’98-’07) are available (some pamphlets are in short supply; alternatives may be sent). UK customers can order a set by paying here, and overseas customers by paying here.