Stratford Literary Festival has launched its annual competition for budding young poets, with the best submissions to appear in a special Festival Collection to be published in the spring.

Anyone aged 5 to 21 can enter the competition and have until 5 March to submit a poem of no more than 600 words on any theme. Students taking design or photography courses (anywhere in the UK) can also be part of the initiative and are invited to design a cover for the collection. The winner will receive £400 and have their design feature as the cover. 

There will be three categories for poetry entrants - 5 to 10 years, 11 to 16 years and 17 to 21 years. The winner of each category will win prizes of £100, £200 & £300 respectively. Performance poet Alex Wharton (Daydreams and Jellybeans) is one of the judging panel.

The collection of winners and those most highly commended will be published in the spring and available to buy both online and in Stratford-upon-Avon Waterstones.

The deadline for poem and book jacket design submissions is Friday 4th March 2022. Full details at stratfordliteraryfestival.co.uk/competitions

Stratford Literary Spring Festival takes place from 3 to 8 May, 2022. Further details can be found HERE.