Rules: 2025 Fenland Poet Laureate Award

Rules: General

1. The competition is open to anyone who lives, works or attends school in the administrative district of Fenland.
2. Applicants must be aged 18 and over for the Fenland Poet Laureate Award, and aged 17 and under for the Young Fenland Poet Laureate Award.
3. The closing date of the competition is midnight (GMT UK time), 31 January 2025.
4. All entries will be considered anonymously.
5. Under no circumstances can alterations be made to poems once entered.
6. Online entries made via the website will receive automatic confirmation at the time of submission.
7. Poems entered via email will receive an email confirmation within three working days.
8. The competition organisers reserve the right to change the judging panel without notice.
9. The judges decision is final. Neither the judges nor Fenland District Council staff will enter into any correspondence.

Rules: Poems

1. All poems must have a title and must not exceed 40 lines in length (excluding title).
2. Poems may be in free verse or stricter form.
3. Poems must be entrant's original work. AI-generated work is prohibited.
4. Entries must not have been published, self-published, published on a website or made public on social media, broadcast or featured among the winners in another competition.
5. Entries should reference Fenland in some way, either subtly through imagery or more directly about life in Fenland, for example.
6. Only one entry per poet.
7. Poems must be written in English.
8. The poet's name must not appear on the poem itself as all entries are judged anonymously.

Rules: Shortlisted entrants

1. All entrants will be notified on whether their entry has been shortlisted by the end of February 2025. Shortlisted entrants will be invited to an awards event in March 2025.
2. Competition entries will be shortlisted by members of Fenland District Council's Culture, Arts and Heritage (CAH) Committee.
3. Shortlisted submissions will be judged by poet and CAH committee Chair, Cllr Elisabeth Sennitt Clough, and the 2024 Fenland Poet Laureate, Hannah Teasdale.
4. All shortlisted and winning entrants will have their poems published in a Fenland Poet Laureate Anthology.
5. The copyright of each poem remains with the author. However, authors of the winning poems, by entering the competition, grant Fenland District Council the right in perpetuity to publish and/or broadcast their poem.

If you have any questions, please email: poetaward@fenland.gov.uk