The 2025 International Book & Pamphlet Competition is Now OPEN

The UK’s most prestigious collection competition
– Manchester Metropolitan University

The Poetry Business is delighted to announce that the 39th International Book & Pamphlet Competition, judged by Kim Moore, is now open!

The International Book & Pamphlet Competition was the first of its kind in Britain. Now in its 39th year, it has launched the careers of many well-established and successful poets, including Selima Hill, Michael Laskey, Daljit Nagra, Pascale Petit, Catherine Smith and Kim Moore herself.

The two winning collections are beautifully produced and promoted widely, and entered for
all eligible awards and prizes. They are also sold in bookshops throughout the UK and through online stockists of The Poetry Business publications.

Competition Details

Entrants are invited to submit a collection of 20 pages of poetry. Two winners will be selected by the judge for publication under our award-winning imprint Smith|Doorstop Books. The two winners will also receive £500 each, publication in The North magazine, and readings at The Wordsworth Trust and online. Four runners-up will receive publication in a feature in The North magazine, an online
reading and an honorarium of £100 each.

The two winners will receive expert close editing and support in extending their entry if they wish to up to 28 pages for pamphlet publication. They also have an opportunity to submit a full-length manuscript, which, where the judges feel it is appropriate, may be published as a book in autumn 2025.

Full-price entry is £29. Subscribers to The North, Friends of the Poetry Business, and members of the Poetry Society are eligible for the discounted fee of £27. All entrants will also receive a 10% code that can be used to purchase Poetry Book Society membership from the PBS website at www.poetrybooks.co.uk. A discount code will be sent to you by e-mail upon receipt of your entry to the competition.

Please see the competition Terms & Conditions towards the bottom of this page, and the Competition FAQ document.

The deadline for entries is midnight on Saturday 30^th November 2024.

Enter the competition

The Judge: Kim Moore

Kim Moore’s pamphlet If We Could Speak Like Wolves was a winner in the 2011 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition. Her first collection The Art of Falling (Seren, 2015) won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her second collection All The Men I Never Married (Seren, 2021) won the 2022 Forward Prize for Best Collection. Her first non-fiction book What The Trumpet Taught Me was published by Smith|Doorstop in May 2022. A hybrid book of lyric essays and poetry Are You Judging Me Yet? Poetry and Everyday Sexism was published by Seren in March 2023. She is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.

“Being asked what I’m looking for as a judge is actually my least favourite part of judging, because I don’t know what I’m looking for until I read it, and every pronouncement I want to make – like ‘I want poems that surprise me’ – I then think of an exception to that rule where a quiet, still poem has taken my breath away, and stayed in my life forever. I would love to read poems that really take care of and explore the magic potential of imagery and showcase all the ways we can use images – as decoration, as forward momentum, as resting place. My decades long obsession with the line break is also still very much alive, so I’d love to read work with perfectly exact line breaks, or deliberately careless line breaks or innovative line breaks or surprising line breaks. Lots of people worry about themed pamphlets – your work doesn’t have to be themed, although it could be, but I’m interested in how poems might change their meaning or have multiple meanings when they sit next to other poems so this might be something you want to think about in your submission. I also love poems that do something I can’t do, poems that make me cry (lots), poems that make me laugh (much rarer!). I am going to stop there with the sense that this perhaps isn’t very helpful, and is in some ways a paragraph of contradictions – but I will say write the poems you need to write, don’t try to predict what anyone (especially not me!) might like, and I’ll look forward to reading them.“
– Kim Moore on judging this year’s competition

Ann and Peter Sansom are directors of The Poetry Business and editors of The North magazine and Smith|Doorstop books. Ann’s publications include Romance and In Praise of Men & Other People (Bloodaxe) and Peter’s include Writing Poems (Bloodaxe) and Selected Poems (Carcanet).

See the list of past winners.

Each and every year The Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition discovers and publishes exciting and substantial new poets…There’s no doubt that this is a career-changing poetry competition. If you’ve got a solid body of work that you’re pleased to have written, there’s nowhere better to send it.
The Poetry Trust

One of the career milestones for very many poets of note
Anne-Marie Fyfe

I’ve judged a lot of contests, but I can’t recall any where the quality of the poems – one manuscript after another – was so high
Billy Collins, 2015 competition judge

We are keen to encourage poetry from all backgrounds and at this difficult time know that entry fees may be a barrier. Therefore, we are allocating a number of free or reduced price entries to this year’s International Book & Pamphlet Competition. Apply here by the 31st October 2024.

Terms and Conditions

Entering the competition

The competition is open to anyone aged 18 and over at the time of entering. International entries are welcome.
We accept simultaneous competition submissions. Furthermore, if an entrant to the International Book & Pamphlet Competition wins another pamphlet prize before the results are announced, The Poetry Business will issue a full refund of the entrant’s entry fee.
There is a standard fee of £29 for each entry submitted. This is reduced to £27 for entrants who are subscribers to The North magazine , are Friends of the Poetry Business or current members of the Poetry Society.
Entry fee waivers are available for those who cannot afford the entry fee. Please see the competition web page for more details.
You may submit as many collections as you wish.
Your real name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Choose a pen name and a title for your collection and insert into header of each page of your document.
Online entries must complete the online entry form in full, and automatic confirmation will be provided at the time of submission. Online entries are encouraged, however postal entries can be made and must be accompanied by a completed entry form.
Entries can be submitted online up to 11:59pm on 30/11/2024. Postal entries must be postmarked on or before the deadline.
Alternations to manuscripts cannot be made once submitted.
Previous winners of The Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition are not eligible to re-enter within 5 years of winning. This does not include runners up or highly commended entrants, who are able to re-enter in subsequent years.
We may use the email address you provide to contact you about the International Book & Pamphlet Competition, including the outcome of your entry. You can request to stop receiving updates from us at any time by contacting office@poetrybusiness.co.uk.

Your work

We ask for small collections of 20 pages of poems. Poems can be any length, more than one poem can be included on one page, and long poems can cover several pages.
The poems should be for adults, in English.
Poems must be the original work of the entrant. AI-generated work is prohibited.
We recommend you use a 12pt font, however there are no rules about the font, spacing or layout to use.
Poems may have been published elsewhere but must not have previously appeared as a published collection.
Copyright remains with the authors, but The Poetry Business reserves the right to first UK publication of the collection for 12 months from publication. (This doesn’t prevent publication elsewhere of individual poems.)
We are unable to offer individual feedback.

The prizes

Winners will have a pamphlet published and receive an equal share of the £1000 cash prize.
The Poetry Business reserves the right to refuse publication to any competition winner on reasonable grounds.
All winners will have the opportunity to read their work at a poetry reading organised by The Poetry Business shortly before (or after) publication of their title.
Each winning poet will have at least one of their poems published in the issue of The North magazine that immediately follows the announcement of the results.

The judging

All entries are considered anonymously by the judges.
The judges’ decision is final. If in the judges’ opinion no collection achieves a high enough standard, no prize-winner will be chosen.
We reserve the right to change the panel of judges without notice.
Entry in the competition will be deemed to be acceptance of these conditions.