International Poetry Competition

The Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre recently ran its 2022 International Poetry Competition to celebrate the power of poetry across the world!

The competition was open to both new and established poets aged 18 and over from across the globe and has two categories:

  • Open category (open to all poets aged 18 years and over)
  • English as an Additional Language (EAL) category (open to all poets aged 18 and over who write in English as an Additional Language.

The winners of each category receive £1000 and both runners up £200.

Our judge

We are excited to say that this year’s judge is the award-winning poet Caroline Bird.

Caroline is a poet and playwright. She has published seven books of poetry with Carcanet, most recently Rookie: Selected Poems (2022). The Air Year, published in 2020, won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, was shortlisted for the Polari Book Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize, and was a Book of the Year in the Telegraph, Guardian and White Review.

Her fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition, was shortlisted for the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize and the Ted Hughes Award. Caroline was one of the five official poets at the 2012 London Olympics.

You can find out more about Caroline’s work on her website, and follow her on X.

If you have questions about the competition, please consult our Frequently Asked Questions (below). If your question isn’t answered there, contact us at: poetrycomp@brookes.ac.uk

You can find out about last year’s competition and the winning poems of 2021 on this dedicated page.

2022 Winners and shortlist

EAL category

  • First Place: 'Orange Blossoms' by Angeliki Ampelogianni
  • Second Place: 'Rehearsal' by Elena Croitoru
  • Special Commendation: 'Hania at the End of the World' by Agata Masłowska

Open category

  • First Place: 'The Seventeenth' by SK Grout
  • Second Place: 'Sunday (Payday)' by Shaw Worth
  • Special Commendation: 'Paradise' by Katie Hale

Frequently asked questions

Eligibility

Entries / Format

Prizes

Entering online

Payment

Judging and the awards event

Data

Copyright

Terms and Conditions