Newman University Poetry Competition 2023 Opens

27/01/2023 by Josephine Frater

Friday 27th January 2023

An announcement: Calling all aspiring poets! Newman University’s annual Poetry Competition is launching once again.

Newman University is inviting all staff and students, both past and present to take part in the Dr Graham McFarlane and T E Murphy Prize for Poetry, including Alumni of Newman University.

Graham and Terry were the first Editor & Deputy Editor of Newman’s original Poetry Magazine in the academic year 1968-69. To mark the 50th anniversary of Newman’s opening, the poetry competition was launched in 2018.

This competition gives all of those who currently study or have studied, or work or have worked at Newman, the opportunity to showcase their writing talents by taking part in this year’s poetry competition.

In order to take part, individuals must submit their poem by email to poetryprize@newman.ac.uk by Monday 13th March 2023. A formal presentation and award ceremony will then take place on Friday 24th March 2023, which will include a reading of the winning poem.

Judges:

Professor Peter Childs, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Newman University Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature

Jai Mackenzie, Senior Lecturer in Applied Writing

Richard Goode, Senior Lecturer in Theology, Newman University and Poetry Competition winner (2018)

Prizes:

£150 for the winner

£50 for each runner-up

Poetry Guidelines:

  1. All entries are judged anonymously and the poet’s name must not appear in the poem itself.
  2. All poems must have a title and must not exceed 40 lines in length (excluding title).
  3. Entries can be on any subject.
  4. Poems must be the original work of the entrant.
  5. Entries must not have been published, self-published, published on a website, broadcast or featured among the winners in another competition before 13th March 2023.
  6. Entries must be written in English.

Rules:

  1. The competition is open to anyone who is currently studying, has studied, or worked at Newman at any time up to the closing date.
  2. The closing date of the competition is 23:59 (UK time), 13th March 2023.
  3. There is a limit of one entry per entrant. All entries will be considered anonymously by the judges.
  4. Under no circumstances can alterations be made to submissions once entered.
  5. The competition organisers reserve the right to change the judging panel without notice and not to award prizes if, in the judges’ opinion, such an action is justified.
  6. The judges’ decision is final and neither judges will enter any correspondence. 7. Entries should be sent as an attachment to poetryprize@newman.ac.uk.
  7. Entries can be submitted in multiple file formats, including mp4 and mp3. If your entry exceeds the maximum email file size, we will also accept submissions by Dropbox/ WeTransfer. Any issues with submitting entries can be emailed to poetryprize@newman.ac.uk.
  8. There will be one winning poem and two runners up.