DPF POETRY PRIZE 2024
Derby Poetry Festival
Prize for Poetry 2024
DPF Prize for Poetry 2024 is a national poetry competition run by Derby Poetry Festival seeking newly written, high-quality poems and writing. Founded in 2017 and often referred to as DPF, Derby Poetry Festival has provided a platform for writers and poets in Derby and surrounding areas to share and experience work. We have prioritised developing new writers and bringing nationally and internationally significant talent to the city.
Our previous headline performers have included nationally and internationally renowned literary voices such as Linton Kwesi Johnson, Joelle Taylor, Shivanee Ramlochan, Vanessa Kisuule, Terrance Hayes, Rachel Long and Raymond Antrobus. This year’s headliners are Roger Robinson, Mary Jean Chan, Jasmine Gardosi and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan.We are incredibly happy to announce that the 2024 judge will be poet and author Kim Moore.Kim Moore’s first collection The Art of Falling (Seren 2015) won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her second collection All The Men I Never Married (Seren, 2021) won the 2022 Forward Prize for Best Collection.
The winners (First, Second, Third and a prize for a shortlisted writer from the East Midlands) will receive a cash prize. There are four cash prizes: £500 for first place, £250 for second place and £100 for third place as well as our East Midlands Entry where a longlisted poet from the East Midlands will receive £150.
Once the deadline has passed the readers will produce a published longlist of 25. These final poems will then be read by Kim Moore. The deadline for the 2024 Poetry Prize is 25th November 2024 at 11.59 pm.
How to apply: To apply, fill out the form below and attach your poems.
The cost of entry to our competition is £10.00 for up to 3 poems and £4.00 for each subsequent poem.
Please pay using the payment option on the entry form. Only online payment is accepted.
Entries
Along with your payment please complete the form and attach your poems:
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They must all be on one document. [Word or PDF]
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Max. 60 lines per poem
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We recommend formatting your entry to have one poem per page. [We understand formatting issue may occur so will not disqualify any entries where this is not the case however it must be obvious to readers where one poem ends and the next begins.]
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Each poem must be titled.
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To be eligible for the East Midlands prize, poets must select the checkbox confirming they are eligible, and this must match with an East Midlands postcode submitted with the application.
Competition Rules
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Poems must be no more than 60 lines long excluding title, and be typed on A4 paper, either as a Word doc or PDF.
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There is no theme for the work; we just want to see what you consider your best work.
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The competition is open to those aged 18+
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Poems must be majority in English, unpublished and your original work/s.
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They must not be a translation but can include snippets from other languages.
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Poems will be longlisted by a team of readers anonymously, all of whom are experienced poets. The longlist will then be read and judged anonymously by Kim Moore.
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Poems cannot be altered after submission. The judge’s decisions are final.
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No person may win more than one prize.
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The copyright of each poem remains with the author, although the organisers have the right to publish winning and commended poems on our website and on online social media. We may seek future permission to include works in anthologies or performances, but this will be discussed with the authors at later dates.
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There are four cash prizes: £500 for first place, £250 for second place and £100 for third place, as well as our East Midlands entry where a longlisted poet from the East Midlands will receive £150.