We're open!

 For the fourth year, we're happy to let you know that the Charm Poetry Competition is back. Our principles remain the same: we're a competition for the lighter side of poetry. We noticed that prize-winning poems are usually on serious subjects. Free-form poems are more common than traditional structures, and rhyme is rare. We’d like to change some of that.

So entertain us. Brighten our day. We like warmth, wordplay, wit and whimsy. We believe it’s possible to write a good poem that conforms to these guidelines, and we'd like you to prove us right.

So take a break from the tinsel, sharpen your pencil, and start writing - you can find links for how to enter to the right of this page.

Charm Poetry Competition 2024 - judge announced

We are delighted to announce that our judge for 2024 is Jenny Lewis. Jenny is a poet and playwright who teaches poetry at Oxford University. Her first book of poetry, When I Became an Amazon (Iron Press 1996 / Bilingua, Russia 2002) was made into a chamber opera premiered by the Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Company in 2017. Her fourth collection, Gilgamesh Retold (Carcanet, 2018) was a New Statesman Book of the Year and Carcanet’s first ever audiobook. Jenny also collaborates with the exiled Iraqi poet, Adnan Al-Sayegh. She is currently working with Mandala Theatre Company on a new play, Seed Guardians, which will go on tour in the UK in 2024. Her fifth collection, From Base Materials, is forthcoming from Carcanet in June 2024.

The Charm Poetry Competition will officially launch soon.