We’re absolutely thrilled to announce that our Competition for 2026 is now open! The rules are listed below.
There will be three prizes, £200 for the winner, £100 for the first runner up, and £50 for the second runner up.
We have three outstanding judges for this year’s competition: Alex Josephy, Janet Sutherland and Chris Goode. Please see this page for more details.
Please read all of the rules carefully before submitting your entry. Poems outside the rules cannot be judged.
Alex has provided some thoughts and prompts to get you started, which you can see on this page.
Maximum three poems per entrant. Entries are charged at £3.00 for the first poem, and £2.00 per poem thereafter.
Payment can be made through PayPal at the foot of this page.
Rules
Seahaven Poets Competition 2026
- Poems should be written on the theme of Community (click here to see some prompts).
- The competition is open to poets currently living in the UK.
- Three prizes are available: First prize £200, second prize £100, third prize £50
- Poems should be no more than 40 lines, and written in 12 point Arial font in Word format (.doc or .docx)
- Maximum 3 entries per person, £3 for the first poem, £2 per poem thereafter.
- Payment will be taken via PayPal (no PayPal account needed – PayPal accept payments by card). See the link at the foot of this page.
- Entries should be emailed as a single attachment (with each poem starting on a separate page) to: Admin@SeahavenPoets.co.uk, with COMPETITION 2026 in the subject header. Include your contact details (including postal address), and a list of titles of the poems submitted, in your email. Also provide the date you made the PayPal payment, and the name under which it was made. Do not put any identifying information in your poems. Judging is anonymous.
- Poems should be your own work. Poems written with or by AI are not eligible. Poems should not be simultaneously entered elsewhere. Poems should not have been previously published in any way, including online and self-published. Poems shared in a private online group are admissible
- The deadline for submissions is: 21/02/2026. Poems submitted after this time will not be considered.
- The winners will be announced at our event on the 14th of March, 2026. Seahaven Poets would love to hear as many poems read at this event as possible. Please let the organisers know if you are attending to read your entry or entries.
- The winners will be notified by the 7th of March; the organisers hope that this will give enough time to arrange to attend on the 14th if possible. The organisers will read the winning entries if the authors are unavailable that day.
- The judges’ decision is final, and correspondence will not be entered into.
- Winning entries, highly commended and commended entries will be published on the Seahaven Poets website: www.seahavenpoets.co.uk
- Please contact admin@seahavenpoets.co.uk for assistance.
