Shelley Memorial Project Annual Poetry Competition 2023
This year’s competition is closed and the winners are listed below.
First prize: Lilla by Mark Ramey
Second prize: Agitation by Paul Francis
Third prize: Pegasus by Elizabeth Barton
Shelley Memorial Cup: Spirit of Rebellion by Morag Warrack
We are very pleased to receive sponsorship for our £250 first prize from The Radical Tea Towel Company. The Company produces a wonderful range of high quality products, all with political and radical themes. In their Radical History emails they marked the anniversary of Shelley's death with a short history of Shelley's life, illustrated with their wonderful range of Shelley themed Tea Towels with verses from two of Shelleys best known radical poems . We would like to thank The Radical Tea Towel Company for their support and for coming up with such and original way of commemoration Shelley's life and work.
2023 Competition Judge: Simon Zec
Simon Zec is a Sussex based poet, tree surgeon and general egotist.
He is a regular performer in pubs and poetry nights across Sussex, occasionally straying beyond his comfort zone.
He has two poetry collections, Death of The Suburb (2018) and In the Downtime (2020) available from The Real Press, a few select shops and online. His third collection, A Deep Inhale, is currently in the making and will be available soon
He is Poetry Editor for The Real Press and enjoys trying to find diverse, interesting new poets to help get on the publishing ladder.
You can find him online via Twitter as @SimonZec23, Instagram as @simonzecpoet or Facebook as Si Zec -Poet
'Simon Zec’s poetry is honest, thought provoking and explores the world around him with passion. Both seeing him live and reading his poetry on the page I find that passion infectious.’ Henry Normal
Submission Guidelines
Submission guidelines are as follows:
Poems may be up to 50 lines.
Poems should be accompanied by an entry form.
The poet’s name should not appear on the poems themselves.
Poems must be the original work of the named author and must not have been previously published (hard copy or on-line) or won a prize in any competition.
The organisers accept no responsibility for entries that are incorrectly submitted or not delivered due to technical faults.
By entering the competition, entrants agree to accept and be bound by the rules of the competitions and the decisions of the judges.
The copyright of each poem remains with the author, but may appear on the SMP website in our social media and an anthology.
Email poem and application form to Shelleymemorialproject@btinternet.com quoting Shelley Poetry Competition in the subject line of the email, by midnight on Friday 8th September 2023. Each poem should be on a separate word document.
If entering by post, send 2 copies of poems, each on a separate sheet, with entry form and fees, to:
Competitions Secretary,
Shelley Memorial Project,
10 Clarence Road,
Horsham, RH13 5SQ
to arrive by the closing date of 8th September 2023.
The winning entrants will be notified by email by Friday 29th September and details of the winners will also be published on our website.