‘ … a fine advert for competitions, which I think should give a hand to the unknown but good.’

Alison Brackenbury

• Maximum length, excluding title and any blank lines: Open category, up to 40 lines; Short category, up to 10 lines; Poem for Children category, unlimited.

• Each entered poem, including its title, should be typed single-spaced in a standard 10 or 12 point font on one side of a single A4 sheet (except Poem for Children category, which may run to additional pages), with a left margin wide enough for ring binding, and should not bear anything to identify the poet. No fancy/coloured/oversized fonts or images please!

• Each entry (of one or more poems) should be accompanied by an entry form: download as pdf, download as MS Rich Text (for online entry, please use this form). If you are unable to download an entry form: the poet's name, address, telephone number, email address and poem title(s) should be printed clearly on a single separate A4 sheet. Please list each poem on a separate line (double spaced), and mark each poem title 'O', 'S' or 'C', to indicate the category entered.

• Short poems (up to ten lines) may be entered for either or both categories, on payment of an appropriate entry fee for each. Please provide a separate copy of your poem for each entry.

• Poems must be the original work of the entrant, unpublished, and must not have won a prize in any other competition. No entrant may win more than one prize in each category.

• To qualify for the 'Best Devon Poem' special prize, the poet must be resident in Devon. The poem may be on any subject.

• Postal Entry fee: £4.00 per poem, or £14 for four poems. Thereafter, £3.50 per poem. Cheques must be in pounds sterling, drawn on a UK bank and made payable to 'The Plough Arts Centre'.

• Online Entry fee: £4.35 per poem. The 35p surcharge helps to defray printing costs, extra administrative time and PayPal charges. Surcharge waived for blocks of four or more poems entered in a single transaction.

• Every poet whose entry is postmarked before November 1st and who provides a stamped, self-addressed envelope clearly marked 'TB' will receive a free tick box critique of each poem entered. Online entrants whose entry is received before November 1st may request free tick box critiques to be sent via email, but email critiques are not available for postal entries. Please allow up to eight weeks for delivery of your free critique.

• Please keep a copy of your work, as we cannot return entries. Please check your entry before you send it, since we cannot amend it for you later.

• For a list of winners and listed poems, please send an A4 sized SAE marked 'results' and stamped at Large Letter rate, or subscribe to the free email results service on the home page of this site. Results run to around eight duplexed pages, so please don't send a tiny envelope.

• Entries close November 30th 2009.

• Prize-winners will be notified by February 1st 2010. The judge's decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

• Copyright remains with the author, but The Plough Arts Centre reserves the right to display winning entries on its website, and to display, broadcast, or use them in promotional literature for a period of twelve months after the competition's close.

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Last updated: October 17, 2009.

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