DPF Prize for Poetry 2023 is a national poetry competition run by Derby Poetry Festival.

The DPF Prize for Poetry is the new written poetry prize introduced to find spectacular 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 and this year’s headliners are Terrance Hayes, Rachel Long and Raymond Antrobus.

 

 In 2023 we are introducing more way to support artist develop talent and push writers, the introduction of the Poetry Prize is a way for us to extend this offering.

We want to continue to bring this quality to our newly launched prizes, with that in mind, we are incredibly happy to announce that the 2023 judge will be Helen Mort a poet and novelist.

Her collections Division Street (2013), No Map Could Show Them (2016) and The Illustrated Woman (2022) are all published by Chatto & Windus. She’s a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University.

  

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 shortlist 25 in each category to a published longlist these final poems will then be read by Helen Mort.

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Deadline: Friday 1st December, Midnight

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How to apply:

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Payment:

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 along with your submission form. Only online payments are accepted.

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Entries:
Along with your payment please complete the form below and attach your poems:

• They must all be on one document. [Word Doc or PDF]

• max. 60 Lines per poem

• We recommend formatting your entry to have one poem per page. [We understand formatting issues 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.]

• Each poem must be titled.

• 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. You can still apply if you live outside of the East Midlands, but you will not qualify for the cash prizes. 

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Competition Rules:

• IMPORTANT: As the competition is judged anonymously, your submission must not have any identifying information (name, address, email, social media etc.) either in the document or in the file name. Any submissions that do will be automatically disqualified.

• Poems must be no more than 60 lines long excluding title, and be typed on A4 paper, either as a Word doc or PDF.

• There is no theme for the work, we just want to see what you consider your best work.

• The competition is open to those aged 18+

• Poems must be, majority in English, unpublished, be your original work/s, not translations, but they may include snippets of other languages.

• Poems will be longlisted by a team of reader anonymously, all experienced poets. The longlist will then be read and judged anonymously by Helen Mort.

• Poems cannot be altered after submission. The judge’s decisions are final.

• No person may win more than one prize.

• The copyright of each poem remains with the author, although the organisers have the right to publish winning and commended poems on our website, 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.

• 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.

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