StoryTown 2023 Poetry Competition

congratulations to our winners!

This year’s theme was ‘Doorways’

Adult Poetry Winner

Sheila Jacob

R. S. Thomas Carries his Wife Elsi Over the Threshold

Adult 2nd Prize

Kathryn Bevis

Door

Adult 3rd Prize

Christopher James

The Raft of Doors

Age 11 – 17, 1st Prize

Stephanie Ogburie

The Pavement

Age 11–17 2nd Prize

Anais Dietz Lipscomb

The Key

Age 11–17 3rd Prize

Bernadette Ingrid Yeung

Eventuality

Under 11’s – 1st Prize

Seren Hughes

A Doorway to a Better Future

Under 11’s – 2nd Prize

Jack Davies

Linda my Star

Under 11’s – 3rd Prize

Anastasia Nash

The Doorway of Seasons

prizes

Adult (18+)
1st: £500, 2nd: £200, 3rd £50

11-17 years
1st: £50, 2nd: £25, 3rd: £10

Under 11s
1 st: £25, 2nd: £15, 3rd: £10

Plus: Winners in all age categories will be invited to read their work on the acclaimed online poetry magazine show The Poetry Place on West Wilts Radio.

STORYTOWN CORSHAM

StoryTown Corsham is an annual celebration of reading, writing and storytelling. For this, our third annual, international poetry competition, we are inviting you to send us your poems on the theme of Doorways.

This can be interpreted however you wish. You might, for instance, explore one of the many symbolic ways in which doorways are used in literature, art, film and music: occupying that liminal, ‘inbetween space’, doorways often represent transition, from, say, childhood to adulthood, or safety to danger; they can be a portal to a different time or place; they are a commonly-used allegory for death, and, conversely, for birth or rebirth; they can suggest barriers to be overcome, sanctuary or repression; and in our high streets, they mark bleak refuge for the homeless.

Most importantly, we want to know what the idea of ‘doorways’ conjures up for you. We look forward to reading your own interpretations, memories, musings and imaginings.

entry fees

Adult (18+): £4 per poem, or £10 for three poems.

11-17 year olds and Under 11s: free of charge.

closing date

Midnight, Tuesday 31 January 2023

PRIZE-GIVING AND PERFORMANCE EVENT

All shortlisted poets, in all three age categories, will be invited to attend a prize-giving event in 2023 to read their poems. This will be either face-to-face in Corsham, or via Zoom, or a combination of the two.

JUDGE

The competition judge is Dawn Gorman, who will read all the entries and adjudicate at the prize-giving event. Dawn is a poet, creative writing tutor and mentor, and works with poetry in therapeutic settings. She is Poetry Editor of Caduceus magazine and presents The Poetry Place monthly poetry radio show on West Wilts Radio. She collaborates widely – her work has been turned into a symphony, films, porcelain artworks and dance, and has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.

Her publications include the Brian Dempsey Award winner Instead, Let Us Say (Dempsey & Windle, 2019), and two Pushcart Prize* nominated pamphlets – This Meeting of Tracks, published in the four-poet collection Mend & Hone (Toadlily Press, 2013), and Aloneness is a Many-Headed Bird (Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2020), a conversation in poetry with Rosie Jackson. A new poetry pamphlet, The Bird Room, is due out from Hedgehog Poetry Press in 2023.

how to enter

Register and pay your entry fee via Pound Arts here.

After paying/registering, all entrants will be invited to email their poem(s) on a Word document (one per page) to: poetrycompstorytown@gmail.com.

There is no entry form. Therefore, in the body of your email, please give:

  • Your full name and address

  • Your phone number (or that of a parent or carer if you are under 18).

  • The title of your poem(s).

  • The age category you are entering your work into.

  • If under 18, you must tell us how old you will be on 31/01/2023.

Your age must be within the appropriate age category on that date.

NOTE: your entry will not be valid unless you have paid your entry fee/registered for the competition prior to emailing in your poems and contact details. You must not include any personal or other information, or illustrations, on the page(s) with your poems.

rules

  1. The competition is open to poets in any country, writing in English, on the theme of ‘Doorways’, which may be interpreted in any way you wish.

  2. There are three age categories: Adults (18 and over); 11-17 Years, and Under 11s.

  3. No entrant will win more than one prize.

  4. You may enter as many poems as you wish; for the adult competition, all poems must be accompanied by the appropriate entry fee.

  5. Poems should not exceed 40 lines.

  6. Work submitted must not have been previously published nor have won a prize in another competition.

  7. Do not include your name or provide any other form of identification on your poem(s).

  8. All entries must be paid for prior to submission, via this link.

  9. Entries must be received no later than midnight on Tuesday January 31st 2023.

  10. Manuscripts cannot be altered after submission.

  11. The judge’s decision is final. No correspondence or discussion concerning the judge’s decision will be entered into.

  12. The copyright will remain with the winning poets.

  13. Winners in each category will be invited to record themselves reading their work for broadcast on an episode of The Poetry Place poetry magazine radio programme on West Wilts Radio in 2023. Previous editions of the programme can be heard here.

  14. By entering the competition, you agree to StoryTown sharing your work through a physical exhibition and/or through digital means, in addition to the radio broadcast.

  15. The ‘How to Enter’ details form part of the Rules.