The competition is organized by the Magma Poetry magazine based in the UK.

There are two contests, one for short poems of up to 10 lines, and one for poems of 11 to 50 lines. The competition is open to anyone.

Poems must not have been previously published, self-published or accepted for publication in print or online, broadcast, or have won or been placed in another competition at any time.

This year the Judge’s Prize for poems of 11 to 50 lines will be judged by AMY ACRE, whose debut collection, Mothersong (Bloomsbury, 2023) was shortlisted for the John Pollard Poetry Prize, and named a Book of the Year in the Telegraph and Financial Times. She runs Bad Betty Press.

All winning and commended poems are published in a free-to-download PDF.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.