2023 Young Poets Competition
First Prize £150. Second and third prizes £75 and £50. Plus a year’s subscription to the Poetry Society.
Deanna Rodger won the UK Poetry Slam when she was 18 and since then has pushed down closed doors and held them open for others, curating spoken word events, facilitating workshops, writing commissions, and mentoring. Most recently, her reimagined version of Kipling’s If was read by Serena Williams on BBC Sport.
Deanna has taken her passion for poetry, especially poetry by and for today’s young readers, on to a huge range of platforms: the British Council (various), Writing for Performance (with Benjamin Zephaniah at Brunel University), Arvon Foundation, Roundhouse, Lyric Hammersmith, Apples and Snakes, National Theatre, Young Vic, The Old Vic, Cardboard Citizens, Foundling Museum, Hamilton Trust and countless others. She is an in-house tutor at the School of Communication Arts (dubbed The most successful AD school in the world) and promises to be an inspirational judge for our Young Poets.
Make a note: Competitions open on 1 April, and close at midnight on 30 June 2023.
Prize Giving and Poetry Reading takes place on Monday 30 October 2023 as part of the Festival.
Competitions Archive
Winners of our previous Competitions