Poetry 2025
For the first time, this year the Festival is launching a poetry competition for young writers between the ages of 11 and 18.
If you enjoy creative writing and would like to enter a poem, we would love to hear from you – and you will be in with a chance of winning a prize by entering! There is a prize of £50 for the best entries in English and in Welsh, and the two winners will be announced at the final event of the Festival on Sunday 21st September.
The theme for the year’s festival and for the poetry competition is ‘Connections.’ Writers are encouraged to interpret this theme in creative and imaginative ways; the poems should have their own title (rather than ‘Connections’).
The closing date for entries is 12:00pm
on Friday 25th July 2025.
Terms and Conditions
The closing date for entries is 12:00pm on Friday 25th July 2025. Entries entered after this deadline will not be considered by the judges.
Entrants must be at least 11 years of age and under 19 years of age on this date.
Entries may be written in English or Welsh, and be no more than 30 lines in length.
Entry is via email to poetry@onlandsedge.co.uk, with an attached document (Word, Pages or PDF) containing the entrant’s poem. As entries will be judged anonymously, no other information should appear on this document; the email must contain the entrant’s name, age, date of birth, the title of the poem and its opening line.
Schools may submit several entries together in one document; please ensure that the accompanying email details each entrant’s name, age, date of birth, poem title and first line.
Poems with joint authorship are ineligible.
Each poem must be the entrant’s own work. Entries must not have been created using AI.
Poems must not have been previously published, broadcast or submitted to another competition.
Names and addresses must not be included with the text of the poem, since entries are judged anonymously.
