Submissions are invited for the Poetry Reciting Competition by The Poetry Archive. The event is called ‘Poetry Archive NOW! WorldView 2023’.

About The Poetry Archive

The Poetry Archive is a not-for-profit organisation that produces, acquires and preserves recordings of poets reading their own work out loud. They make substantial excerpts from their recording sessions freely available online through this website and their dedicated Children’s Poetry Archive.

About the Poetry Reciting Competition

From June 1 to August 31, 2023, The Poetry Archive would love you to make a video/film recording of yourself reading or reciting a single poem which you have written in 2023.

They loved seeing where poets came from in last year’s videos, whether it was indoors or outside, and you’ll find some great tips on making home videos through your phone or computer in our FAQs.

When you are ready, simply complete the submission form and send your recording to them. They can then publish your poem for all to hear and see.

From June 1 onwards they have begun publishing the poems to their new Poetry Archive YouTube channel where the millions of people who visit the Poetry Archive each year can hear them and know the poets who created them.

Poetry Archive WordView 2023

After the deadline, a panel of judges will select their 20 favourite entries for a special Archive Collection for 2023 to be celebrated on their website. Plus, hundreds of other poets will be published on their YouTube and other channels where they will curate a series of special profiles, poetry festival events and publicly curated collections to ensure your work is shared as widely as possible with poetry lovers around the world.

Need Some Inspiration?

UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage shows how it’s done – he made this video for them in 2020 from his garden. 

“Home-made film (daughter on phone camera) of me reading Lockdown, in the garden, in the West Yorkshire Pennines, on a fresh spring day. First day proper of the emergency measures, but the blue tits and the buzzard in the background obviously hadn’t heard about the restrictions on movement, gatherings and vitality. And the sun was reliably in its proper position at the given hour.”

Award-winning poet, Roger Robinson, also reads his unpublished poem called ‘A Conversation About Meat During The Plague’.

And if that’s not enough to get you inspired, try visiting the WordView 2022 winners collection here.

Terms and Conditions

• This competition is run by The Poetry Archive, charity number 1093858, registered office Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street, Exeter, EX4 3LS.
• Only submissions completed through the online form on poetryarchive.org between June 1 and August 31, 2023, will be accepted.
• Open only to poets over 18 years of age.
• Each recording should be a video of yourself reading your single poem with a maximum length of 2 minutes of reading time. We would like you to tell us your name, the name of the poem and then read the poem.
• Poems must be written during and in response to, 2023. They can be on any theme, subject and in any style up to 2 minutes in reading time. They want future generations to look back and see the refrains, concerns, and emotions of 2023 in all their diversity to build a true picture of poetic responses to our age.
• By submitting your poem you confirm you are the sole copyright holder for your work. The Poetry Archive will only share a poem when they have the copyright owner’s permission to do so. If the poem you choose is published elsewhere you might not be able to grant them permission to share your work – please talk to your publisher.
• They do not ask for exclusive rights to this work. By submitting a poem to the Poetry Archive you confirm that you have the authority to grant them copyright permissions to share your work through the Poetry Archive website, their YouTube and other social media channels.
• The Poetry Archive collects poetry written in English from around the world so they ask all poems to be recorded in English.
• All work submitted will only be played through the Poetry Archive websites (poetryarchive.org) or our YouTube channel, or marketed through our social media channels and websites. We will not sell, rent or loan your work to any third party without your prior written permission and all intellectual property belonging to poets will be respected at all times.
• The Poetry Archive retains the right to choose which poems they will share through their websites, YouTube and marketing channels. They maintain their poetry collections for general public enjoyment and for education purposes.  
• Each year the Poetry Archive will assemble a panel of experts to choose their favourite poems to be part of a special annual collection, the Poetry Archive Now! WordView 2023 Collection. Each poet selected for this special collection will be offered £100 (Rs. 10k+) (for permission to display and share their poem on the Poetry Archive website.
• To ensure they can reach as many poets as possible they regret they must limit entries to one poem per poet and multiple entries received afterwards will be automatically disqualified – so take your time to get the best version you can. This competition will run every year so you can apply again each year.
• They regret no responsibility can be accepted for entries not received for whatever reason.
• All poets whose work we would like to include in our online Virtual Poetry Festivals or curated collections will be contacted in advance to gain approval before we proceed.
• At all times the Poetry Archive retains the right to choose which poems to publish. They always look for reasons to include poets in the Archive and no poet will be unreasonably excluded. They reserve the right to cancel or amend the competition and these terms and conditions without notice in the event of a catastrophe or any actual or anticipated event outside the Poetry Archive’s control.
• They regret we cannot enter into individual discussions or correspondence with poets. They are a very small team but they will do their best to provide information through their website and will update our FAQs in response to enquiries as they come in.
• By entering this competition an entrant is indicating their agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions.

Prize

Each year, after the deadline, the Poetry Archive will assemble a panel of experts to choose their favourite poems to be part of a special annual collection, the Poetry Archive Now: WordView Collection. Each poet selected for this annual collection will be offered £100 (Rs. 10k+) for permission to display and share their poem on the Poetry Archive website. The Prize selection process consists of:

• A shortlist of the Top 50 Poems to be chosen by a panel led by the Poetry Archive Director and a team of invited poets and poetry specialists and publishers (to be published).
• From the shortlist, a specialist panel will select the 20 poems to be included in the Poetry Archive Now 2023 Collection.
• Where poets are chosen for commendation by the panel they will be contacted by email.
• All other poets selected may still be contacted by email in future to be part of curated collections based on geography, style, theme etc as part of our work to raise the profile of as many poets as possible through our newsletters and marketing channels.

How to Submit?

Go to the ‘Submit your poem for 2023’ section and fill out the submission form. On the final page of the submission form upload the file of your video entry and you’re done! 

Click here to read the official notification of the Poetry Reciting Competition by The Poetry Archive [Poetry Archive NOW! WorldView 2023; Prizes of Rs. 10k+].