Oxford Poetry hosts the annual Oxford Poetry Prize, awarded for a single poem in the English language. The guest judge for 2023 is Will Harris.

The winner of the Oxford Poetry Prize receives £1,000, the runner-up £200, and third place £100. The winning poets are also offered publication in Oxford Poetry. This year’s competition closes at midnight UTC on Thursday, 31 August 2023.

About the 2023 guest judge

Will Harris is a London-based writer. His debut poetry book Rendang (2020) was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. He co-edited the Spring 2020 issue of The Poetry Review with Mary Jean Chan. He has collaborated with the artist Aisha Farr, and helps facilitate the Southbank New Poets Collective with Vanessa Kisuule. He co-translated Habib Tengour’s Consolatio with Delaina Haslam in 2022. He is currently a Visiting Poetry Fellow at UEA working towards a community-led archive of four poets’ work. His second book of poems, Brother Poem (2023), is published by Granta in the UK and by Wesleyan University Press in the US.

how to submit

Entries should consist of one poem per uploaded file. The only acceptable file format is pdf.

Entries are accepted through Submittable only.

Entrants have the option of submitting more than one poem as part of their submission (in separate files, as above). Each poem costs £10.

There is no limit on the number of poems an individual can submit.

Each poem must comprise no more than 50 lines. Blank lines, titles, subtitles, dedications, and epigraphs are not counted as lines.

All submissions are read blind. Therefore, please do not include your name or any identifying information in the documents you upload. You should include this information only in the Title or Cover Letter field of the Submittable form.

The Competition is open to writers living anywhere in the world.

The poems submitted must be the entrant’s own original work and not have been previously published elsewhere, in print or online.

A limited number of free entries are available to low-income writers. Email to enquire about free entry.

terms and conditions

The 2022 Oxford Poetry Prize is organised by Partus Press Ltd on behalf of the magazine Oxford Poetry.

The competition is open to anyone age eighteen or over on the date of their submission. Submission of a poem to the Oxford Poetry Prize also constitutes the entrant’s acceptance of these terms and conditions. Entries that do not comply with these terms and conditions will be disqualified from the competition.

Entries are welcome from utc 15 May 2023. The deadline for submitting entries is midnight utc on 31 August 2023. Work received after that date will not be considered.

Poems submitted to the Oxford Poetry Prize must not have been previously published elsewhere, whether in print or online (including but not limited to blogs, websites, and social media).

Winners and shortlisted entrants will be notified by email.

No correspondence will be entered into regarding the judging process.

The winning entry will be published in a print issue of Oxford Poetry and on the Oxford Poetry website. Oxford Poetry will have the exclusive right to publish the winning poem for four months from its first publication in the printed magazine. After four months, the rights will revert to the author, who may publish the poem elsewhere with appropriate credit to Oxford Poetry, but Oxford Poetry will retain the non-exclusive right to publish the poem online or in print.

The second- and third-prize winners will be offered publication in a print issue of Oxford Poetry and on the Oxford Poetry website.

The winning poet will receive a cash prize of £1,000. The runner-up will receive a cash prize of £200. The third-prize winner will receive a cash prize of £100. All cash prizes will be paid out in full no later than 90 days after the public announcement of the judge’s decision. No individual poet may receive more than one cash prize.

Partus Press reserves the right not to award the prizes, or to reduce or split the prize money if, in its opinion, such an action is justified for any reason.

All poems submitted must be written primarily in the English language. Unfortunately we cannot accept translations, unless you have translated your own work and the work in the original language has not previously been published in print or online as per the terms previously outlined.

Entrants will be contacted with a response to their submission by the end of November 2023. All submissions will be responded to, though we cannot provide editorial feedback on unsuccessful entries.

Each poem submitted costs £10. The fee is not refundable.

There is no limit to the number of poems a single entrant can enter to the Oxford Poetry Prize.

No changes or alterations can be made to poems once they have been entered into the competition.

Partus Press Ltd cannot accept responsibility for any damage, loss, injury, or distress suffered by any person who has entered the competition.

Partus Press Ltd reserves the right to cancel the competition, or to amend the terms and conditions of entry, if the press deems it necessary or to account for circumstances beyond its control (in which case a notice will be posted on the Oxford Poetry website). If the competition is cancelled, paid entry fees will be refunded.

The entry must be the entrant’s own original work and must not infringe upon the copyright of any person or entity.

These terms and conditions apply equally to paid-for entries and to free entries entered under the low-income scheme.

In the event of a dispute regarding these terms and conditions, or any matter relating to the Oxford Poetry Prize, the decision of the organiser, Partus Press Ltd, shall be final.

The competition rules will be governed by English law and any dispute will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.