MAG Poetry Prize 2010 - open poetry competition

More than a writing competition – a poetic e-democracy

Now open for entries ... rigorous, professional ... the greatest ever online poetry competition!

Prize fund accumulates @£2.00 per entry (up to £10,000 maximum)

1st Prize - 50%, 2nd Prize - 25%, 3rd Prize - 15%, 4th Prize - 10%

We have no appointed judges – the entrants judge the competition themselves. It's a knockout system in three rounds (see poetry competition rules for details) – but beware, if you don't participate in the judging, you will be knocked out yourself! In each round the entrants read 12 poems. In the final round everyone reads the last 12. The judging will take place in May and June, following closure of the competition.

Any subject. Style: Poetry or Prose Poetry. Maximum 42 lines. £6 per poem.

New development for the poetry competition in 2010: participants may leave twitter-style comments during the judging process. Comments will be made visible after the winners have been announced.

All profits from the poetry competition will be donated to MAG (Mines Advisory Group). MAG is a neutral and impartial humanitarian organisation that clears the remnants of conflict for the benefit of communities worldwide.

Closing date: 30th April 2010

Twitter hash tag is #PRMAG. Don't worry if that means nothing.

Last year's poetry competition

The first year of the MAG Poetry Prize was an experiment to see whether it is possible to harness the collective abilities and wisdom of a community of poets to effectively judge an online poetry competition

The quality of the final shortlist of 12 poems clearly showed that this is possible. In addition, the comments from the participants indicated that the process was not only enjoyable but also valuable from a learning perspective. The dimension of raising funds for MAG's humanitarian work was viewed very positively and set a constructive tone for the poetry competition. To read specific comments from participants and to find out more see the poetry competition report.

310 entries were received from Australia, Canada, France, Greece, Guernsey, Iceland, India, Ireland, Jersey, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK and USA. This raised £310 for MAG's humanitarian work.

The winner of the MAG Poetry Prize 2009 was Francesca McMahon. She read her poem on BBC Radio Manchester on Saturday 1st August. Read all about the poetry competition winners.

A freelance journalist, Vivien Hampshire, wrote a feature on the judging process from an entrant's perspective and this appeared in the September issue of "Writing Magazine" – the UK's Best Selling Writing Magazine - along with Francesca's winning poem "Thirteenth Birthday."

Poetry competitions are no longer simply poetry competitions!

Thank you to all the participants for taking part and providing constructive feedback and thank you to the individuals and organisations who kindly offered support in the promotion of the competition.

View entries to this year's poetry competition

You can view a random snapshot of the 2010 entries (where the poet has chosen to publish on the website) as they come in on the poem randomiser below.

Poem Randomiser

Load a new poem

Biodiversecology

Petersham, Australia

The curtain rose lightly like new morning mist
Reminiscent of old Greek mythology
The conductor's hands fluttered like leaf litter, softly
Revealing a hidden ecology

Old man Orangutan swayed a bass pulse
Mimicking kinesiology
Monkeys and marmosets chased violins... read more