Magma Poetry Competition

MAGMA POETRY COMPETITION 2025/26

MAGMA POETRY COMPETITION 2025/26 is now open for entries in both categories
The Judge’s Prize – poems of 11 to 50 lines
The Editors’ Prize – poems of up to 10 lines
Deadline 31 January 2026 11.59pm GMT

Rishi Dastidar
Rishi Dastidar

 

This year the Judge’s Prize for poems of 11 to 50 lines will be judged by Rishi Dastidar whose poetry has been published by the Financial Times, New Scientist and the BBC, amongst many others. His third collection, Neptune’s Projects (Nine Arches Press), was longlisted for the Laurel Prize, and a poem from it was included in The Forward Book of Poetry 2024. He is also editor of The Craft: A Guide to Making Poetry Happen in the 21st Century (Nine Arches Press), and co-editor ofToo Young, Too Loud, Too Different: Poems from Malika’s Poetry Kitchen (Corsair). He reviews poetry forThe Guardian and is chair ofWasafiri. His latest publication is A hobby of mine (Broken Sleep Books).

The Editors’ Prize is judged by a panel of Magma Editors and is for poems of up to 10 lines. The prize money for both competitions is the same, so double your chances and try your luck at both.

First prize for the Judge’s and Editors’ Prize is £1000, second prize £300 and third prize £150.

The three prize-winning poems from each category will be published in Magma and there will also be five special mentions for each of the Judge’s Prize and Editors’ Prize categories. All winning and commended poems will be published online on the Magma website. Winning and commended poets will be invited to read their poems at a Magma Competition event in Spring 2026.

Last years’ winners are published in Magma 92 Ownership Issue which you can purchase for £8.50 here. 

HOW TO ENTER

The quickest and easiest way to enter is via submittable. You’ll be able to upload your poem entries from 1 October 2025 to 31 January 2026, and pay the appropriate entry fee securely by PayPal.

Alternatively, you can post your poems with the completed Magma Competition 2025/26 Entry Form together with your payment.

The entry fees are £5 for the first poem, £4 for the second and £3.50 for the third and each subsequent poem. Magma magazine subscribers benefit from reduced fees: £4 for the first poem, £3 for the second, and £2.50 for the third and each subsequent poem. Payment must be made in sterling, by cheque or money order payable to “Magma Poetry” for postal entries, and via PayPal for online entries. (PayPal can process payments by card as well as from PayPal accounts.)

You can subscribe to Magma from £22.00 via our Get Magma page. You’ll find the latest information about the magazine here, and you’ll be able to purchase a subscription online. Alternatively, please send a cheque for £22 payable to “Magma Poetry” for a year’s subscription (3 issues) to the print magazine, to Magma Distribution, 27 Well Street, Cupar, Fife, KY15 4AX.

POSTAL ENTRIES: Please enclose a Completed Entry form. Each poem must be on a separate sheet. Poems longer than one page must give their title on the second page and the pages should be stapled together. Do not include your name or any other identifying marks on the poems themselves. Postal entries with payment should be sent to: Magma Poetry Competition, 1 Winton Ave, London, N11 2AS

Payment must be made in sterling, by cheque or money order payable to “Magma Poetry”.

The competition closes at 11.59pm GMT on 31 January 2026.

GENERAL

  • No alterations can be made after receipt, nor fees refunded.
  • All poems must not have been previously published, self-published or accepted for publication in print or online, broadcast, or have won or been placed in another competition at any time.
  • The judge’s and editors’ decisions are final and no correspondence can be entered into. No entrant may win more than one prize in each section.
  • Should the named judge be unable to proceed, we aim to substitute an alternative judge of equivalent standing as a poet.
  • Prizewinners will be notified individually in April 2026. The results will also be published on the Magma Poetry website after the prize-giving event.
  • Copyright of each entry remains with the author, but Magma Poetry has the right to first publication of the winning poems in print and/or online within six months of the competition deadline.
  • Entry implies acceptance of all the rules. Failure to comply with the rules will result in disqualification.

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Past competitions:

The results of the MAGMA POETRY COMPETITION 2024/25

The Judge’s Prize judged by Amy Acre for poems of 11 to 50 lines

  • FIRST PRIZE  Folding Paper Alex Mazey
  • SECOND PRIZE The Book of Dying Michael Martin
  • THIRD PRIZE  Axe Throwing Jackson Phoenix Nash
COMMENDED
  • On watching my mother plant seeds Amandine Vabre Chau
  • Thief Kirsty Crawford
  • Things my Mugger Found Adam Panichi
  •  Home Mariam Saidan
  • Pain perdu Rebecca Sharp

The Editors’ Prize for poems of up to 10 lines

  • FIRST PRIZE Potassium Nitrate, Charcoal, Sulphur Wes Lee
  • SECOND PRIZE Holy bitch Jane Wilkinson
  • THIRD PRIZE : Lungs Sharon Black
COMMENDED
  • beach bodyAV Bridgwood
  • Before Us S.L. Holm
  • i don’t miss the smoking Dillon Jaxx
  • Shoulders David Oates
  • Three Urns III Lauren Thomas

Download a special PDF document here of all the winning and commended poems, plus both the Judge’s and Editors’ judging reports

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PAST COMPETITIONS

Magma Poetry is delighted to announce the results of the 2023/24 Poetry Competition.

Raymond Antrobus and the panel of Magma Editors read over 3,500 poems. Congratulations to all the winning and commended poets and huge thanks to everyone entering the competition and for your continuing support of Magma.

Read the all winning and commended poems as well as the judging reports here:

Magma Poetry Competition: Winning and Commended Poems 

JUDGE’S PRIZE judged by Raymond Antrobus, for poems of 11-50 lines

  • FIRST PRIZE: For Palestine by Clara-Læïla Laudette
  • SECOND PRIZE: Toussaint L’Ouverture Replies to Wordsworth (March 1803) by Rommi Smith
  • THIRD PRIZE: Please Refrain From Speculating by Leyla Çolpan

COMMENDED:

  • Anthros by JA Lenton
  • Faint by Amelia Loulli
  • Brogue by Éadaoín Lynch
  • Watching by Linda McDonald
  • spell to dismantle the patriarchy by Lynnda Wardle

EDITORS’ PRIZE judged by Magma Editors, for poems of up to 10 lines

  • FIRST PRIZE: Scapa Flow by Catherine Spooner
  • SECOND PRIZE: Temporary Worker Visa by Anne Rouse
  • THIRD PRIZE: The Beauty Here Is Almost Unbearable by Millie Guille

COMMENDED:

  • Leaves, Their Whole Lives, Dangle by Sharon Black
  • My Unborn by Jo Cornwell
  • The Goat in Tehran by Hilary McDaniel
  • ache by Kayla Marie Troy
  • Transparency by John White

The three winning poems in each competition will be published in Magma 89, Performance and all winning and commended poems plus the judges’ reports online in a downloadable PDF, available when the issue launches this July.

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older posts:

Magma 2022/23 Poetry Competition

We are delighted to share the winning and commended poems from the Magma Poetry Competition 2020/21!

Click on the link below to read the poems:

Magma Poetry Competition 2022/23 Winning and Commended Poems

 

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Magma 2021/22 Poetry Competition

 

We are delighted to announce the winners of our 2021/22 Poetry Competition

Read the poems here: Magma Poetry Competitions 2021/22 — Winning and Commended Poems

Winner of the JUDGE’S PRIZE judged by Marvin Thompson:
Gwen Sayers with Archbishop Tutu’s funeral seen from thousands of miles away

 

Magma Poetry Competition 2020/21
Winning and Commended Poems

We are delighted to share the winning and commended poems from the Magma Poetry Competition 2020/21!

Click on the link below to read the poems:

Magma Poetry Competition 2020/21 Winning and Commended Poems

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Older posts

Magma Poetry Competition 2019/20
Winning and Commended Poems


We are delighted to share the winning and commended poems from the Magma Poetry Competition 2019/20!

Click on the link below to read the poems:

Magma Poetry Competition 2019/20 Winning and Commended Poems

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Magma Poetry Competition 2019/20 — Winners Announced

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magma Poetry is excited to announce the winners and commended poets for its 2019/20 Poetry Competition for both the Judge’s Prize and the Editors’ Prize.

Many thanks to everyone who entered our annual Competition. Our Judge Caroline Bird and Magma Editors’ have been busy reading thousands of entries and we have had some very tough choices to make, but we now have our list. Congratulations to all the winners and commendeds and huge thanks to everyone for your continuing support of Magma.

JUDGE’S PRIZE

FIRST PRIZE: Mark Russell from Arrochar, Scotland with Hospitality

SECOND PRIZE: Victoria Richards from London with The mothers scream into the void

THIRD PRIZE: Rachael Matthews from New York with Ventriloquism

COMMENDED POEMS in no particular order:

Cameron Brady-Turner from Hemel Hempsted with Animal Crossing
Katie O’Pray from Bedford with Four Kisses
Nicola Daly from Chester with All I know About: J
Sally Baker from Mytholmroyd, W. Yorks with Fear of Arsenical Green
Liam Bates from Wednesbury, W. Midlands with The Protagonist

EDITORS’ PRIZE

FIRST PRIZE: James Pollock from Madison, WI, USA with Goose Neck Lamp

SECOND PRIZE: Paul Nemser from Cambridge, MA, USA with Morning After

THIRD PRIZE: Lydia Harris from Orkney with Muldro

COMMENDED POEMS in no particular order:

Maria Isakova-Bennett from Liverpool with The Alt at Lunt Meadows
John Maguire from Northumberland with The artist responds to criticism
Ian Chamberlain from Teignmouth, Devon with Certificate PG
Dean Gessie from Ontario, Canada with existential deer
Kathy Pimlott from Covent Garden with After the Fall

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The three winning poems in each competition will be published in Magma 77, Act Your Age, and the Commended poems on the Magma website when the issue launches.

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We are delighted to announce the winners of Magma Poetry Competition 2018/19

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Judge’s Prize

Judged by Andrew McMillan

First prize:  Inua Ellams – ‘Fuck/Boys’

Second prize: Rowena Warwick – ‘Stillborn’

Third prize: Ben Strak – ‘Hangover’


Commended (in no particular order)

Milena Williamson – ‘On our night out’

Catherine Norris – ‘Break the fast with peaches’

Inessa Rajah – ‘Checklist’

Regina Weinert – ‘Sheffield Fox’

*The fifth commended poem for the Judge’s Prize has since been withdrawn by the poet

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Editors’ Prize

Judged by a panel of Magma Editors

First prize: Derek Hughes – ‘A Strange Boulder’

Second prize: Kathy Pimlott – ‘Entertaining Sammy Davis Jnr in St Ives, 1962‘

Third prize: Katie Hale – ‘Lanterns’


Commended (in no particular order)

Ian Patterson – ‘Violin’

Robyn Steely – ‘Still Life with Cigarette’ 

Ken Babstock – ‘Infinite Jump Glitch’

Claire Gallivan – ‘The Text’ 

Barbara Hickson – ‘At Logan Botanic Garden’

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We are delighted to be hosting our Prize Winners’ Reading in the beautiful and atmospheric setting of Exmouth Market Centre in Islington, North London. Book your tickets here

[SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED] Call for Submissions: Magma 47 ‘the devil and all his works’

Is the devil you know better than the devil you don’t? Does the devil take you? Do you speak of the devil? Have you been having a devil of a time and was it the devil to pay? Was the devil in the detail? Are you playing devil’s advocate? Is the devil he, she, both, or neither? Are you caught between the devil and Deep Blue Sea? Are you in limbo? Are you in Purgatory? Did you ever make a Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake? Is your hell private or public, and at which station on the Circle Line do you get off? Why does the devil have so many names and why does he have all the best tunes? Are you one of the beautiful and the damned?

Annie Freud, Guest Editor of Magma 47, with Roberta James as assistant editor, invites you to submit poems stimulated by anything connected with the devil and all his works.

The deadline is 28 February 2010. Off-theme poems will also be considered. Please see the Contributions page for details of how to submit your poems.

Read more

Magma Roadshow with Don Paterson at Cheltenham

This year Magma Poetry was lucky enough to be running a workshop at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. This was appropriately titled 'Writing Poetry' and we shared it with Don Paterson, who has just won this year's Forward Prize for his collection, 'Rain'.

Don spent two fascinating hours at the workshop taking questions and talking about the English language lyric poem, and covered large areas of poetic ground, offering us his take on prosody, metre, phonetics and even managing to squeeze in a brief sentence or two on the subject of metaphor.

I'm pleased to say he is writing a book about poetry - publication date still up for grabs - so that those who haven't had a chance to hear some of his insights will be able to read about them - eventually. Those who have been lucky enough to hear Don talk about poetry will know that it's partly his particularly original turn of phrase that is illuminating; for example, the idea that most poetry that uses iambic pentameter is 'magnetised' to the metre or a sonnet is just a 'wee black square' on a white page.

I offered the participants a chance to become editors for an hour so, putting into practice some of Don's insights and suggestions. Split into small groups, they were invited to select which of three very different poems by dead poets (selected so that there was no danger of offending the living) they would choose.

They pursued this task with enormous gusto and there was a wide range of opinions, all of them justifiable, which I'm delighted to say proved the point I was trying to make. Poetry, like all art forms, is a hugely subjective business, and once a poem has reached a certain benchmark of quality (also a subjective matter, I know), selection becomes a matter of the editor's personal taste. This is where Magma has the edge. A rotating editorship means that the flavour of each issue will be different and if one editor returns your poetry, the next one may publish it. Keep sending it in!

Read more

Judy Brown Wins the London Poetry Competition

  • News

Magma is delighted to congratulate Judy Brown on winning first prize in this year's Poetry London Competition with 'Letter to My Optician'. Judy has been a member of the Magma team and, before that, a member of the City Lit group from which Magma sprang. We have all delighted in her gift for rich and startling imagery whenever her poems have appeared in Magma and elsewhere, and clearly Don Paterson, the competition judge, did too. Judy's first pamphlet collection, Pillars of Salt, was published by Templar Poetry in 2006 and we're sure it won't be long before a more substantial collection of her work appears. Congratulations too to Howard Wright for winning second prize in the competition. Howard is a Magma regular and was our Showcase poet in Magma 28. And congratulations to Matthew Caley for his Commended. Matthew has appeared many times in Magma and featured at many of our readings, even going so far as St Andrews to read for us at the STAnza Festival in 2007.

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Should We Ban Poets’ Biographies from Poetry Magazines?

A comment posted after one of our recent blog articles suggests that readers should lose “interest in writers' biographies” so they don’t know whether the poet has direct experience of the subject matter. I agree, but take it further: biographical notes should not be included in poetry magazines in the first place because they lead the reader’s views of the poem.

I suggest readers do not want layers of meaning added to a poem by perceived notions of who or what the poet is. A biography which gives more than name and past works is at fault because it inevitably influences the reading of a poem. A reader should not be prompted to a particular point of view about a poem outside of the poem itself. For example, if readers know that a writer spent formative years in foster care they will be prompted to think that a poem about dysfunctional families is written from the standpoint of a damaged child. It may be, but I argue that should come from the poem not from knowledge of the poet’s life.

You might argue that a poet’s biographical note is relevant for an understanding of the poem. That, for example, the works of the World War One poets would not resonate for us if we did not know they were written in the trenches. But an extraordinary poem about war should not be trapped within one time frame, and its understanding limited to its place at the specific moment when it was written. A biographical note asks the reader to do just that.

Or looked at from another angle, a poem is as much a window into the soul of the reader as it is into the soul of a writer, and the poet’s background should not get in the way when it is read. I don’t want a light-bulb moment of realisation when I think “ah, that must be the Spanish incident” because I know the poet worked as a doctor in that country. I want to leave the poem questioning what has happened at Finisterre, or with my own interpretation of it based on the poem. As a poet I do not want the reader to understand a poem as an extension of any biographical note. Poems deserve effort on the part of the reader, as well as the poet.

If I visit a theatre, I would think it inappropriate if I were given biographical details of the cast with the implication that I should superimpose knowledge about the actors onto the play. What I hope to do instead is immerse myself in the plot or layers of ideas and make my own decisions about what is happening and who the characters are, about whether the work is successful. So it should be with poems.

If you are a poet and we meet, share with me, if you wish to, knowledge about yourself and your background.

But when it comes to your poems, do not tell me who you are. Let me not know.

What Do You Think?

Do you want poets’ biographies included after their poems?

Is biographical knowledge important to understanding some poets' work? If so, which ones?

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Troubadour Poetry Prize 2009 — Deadline 9th October

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Magma launches each new issue at the Troubadour Café, in association with Coffee-House Poetry, and has hosted many memorable readings over the years. Because of this close association with Coffee-House Poetry and its organiser, Anne-Marie Fyfe, editor of Magma issue…

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Are You Bored With The Default Poem?

In his 2007 book, How to Write a Poem (the book is much better than the title might suggest), John Redmond writes (p.17): Many poems fall back on a simple lyric formula: an ‘I-persona’ describing its state of mind and…

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