You can use the form below to quickly and easily enter the Crabbe Poetry Competition.

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SPS has held the annual George Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition since 1954, which is open to all who were born, educated or live in Suffolk, Norfolk or Essex or are SPS members.

We are delighted to welcome Tamar Yoseloff as our adjudicator for the 2023 Crabbe Poetry Competition.

Tamar Yoseloff’s sixth collection is The Black Place (Seren, 2019). She is also the author of Formerly (the inaugural chapbook from her publishing venture, Hercules Editions), incorporating photographs by Vici MacDonald and shortlisted for the 2012 Ted Hughes Award, and collaborative editions with the artists Linda Karshan and Charlotte Harker respectively.

She has run courses for galleries including the Hayward, the RA and the National Gallery and co-curated the exhibition A Fine Day for Seeing at Southwark Park Galleries in 2021. She’s a lecturer on the Poetry School / Newcastle University MA in Writing Poetry.

First Prize: £600
Second Prize: £300
Third Prize: £150
plus
Two Highly Commended Prizes of £75

All winning poems (including commended poems not attracting a monetary prize) will be read, preferably by their authors, at a celebratory Awards Event in October 2023 and will be included in the 2023 Crabbe Poetry Prize Anthology.

Competition Rules

• Entrants should either have been born, or educated, work or be resident in Suffolk, or be a member of Suffolk Poetry Society.
• Poems should be in English and a maximum of 50 lines.
• Poems must be the writer’s own work, not published, broadcast, on a website, or currently entered in any other competition.
• Each poem must be typed on a separate sheet of A4 paper and submitted in DUPLICATE with the fee. The poet’s name should appear on one copy only.
• The adjudicator’s decision is final.
• No entrant can win more than one monetary prize.
• Only winners will be notified. Winners will be listed on the website in September 2023.
• The Press will also be notified of the winning poets and poems.
• Copyright of the poem remains with the poet, with permission to Suffolk Poetry Society to publish any winning poem free of charge.

Entry fees: £4 for each poem.

Closing date: 15 June 2023.