Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 2025

The Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year Competition is open for submissions. Open to adults over the age of 18 on 2nd October 2025.

Poems entered may be on any subject and in any poetic format but no more than 60 lines long. Poems must be original and previously unpublished.

The Awards Evening will take place on Thursday 2 October 2025 via Zoom when the winning poems will be announced.

• First place: named Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year and £300.
• Second Place: £150
• Third Place: £75

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.