Poetry Contest The Bahamas 2026, Dialect Verse

Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for Bahamian poets. Write in Bahamian dialect or standard English, win cash prizes, earn certificates and detailed scores.

Bahamian poetry keeps one foot in the oral tradition, in old-story tellings of Ber Bouki and Ber Rabby and in the goatskin drums of Junkanoo, and one foot on the international page. Marion Bethel of Nassau won the Casa de las Américas Prize in 1994 for Guanahani, My Love and later titled a collection Bougainvillea Ringplay, after the ring games Bahamian children still play, while Christian Campbell's Running the Dusk took the Aldeburgh best first collection prize in 2010. From New Providence to the Family Islands, poems move between Bahamian dialect and standard English as the line demands.

Writory runs a monthly international poetry contest that reads Bahamian work exactly as it arrives, dialect included, with no translation required at any stage. Entries open on the 1st, close on the 25th and results are published on the 30th. Winners take cash prizes, every entrant collects a participation certificate, and each poem comes back with a score across creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme saved to the poet's profile. Poets from more than 50 countries have entered Writory, and poems from Nassau and Freeport are read in exactly that company.

Writory holds a monthly international poetry contest that Bahamian poets can enter in Bahamian dialect, standard English or any other language, with cash prizes for winners and a certificate for everyone who submits.

Why enter

Dialect verse and standard English reach the same judges under the same five criteria, so a poem in Bahamian dialect is never asked to explain itself first.
There is no set form, which means a piece built for the open mic and a tight fourteen line sonnet are each read on their own terms.
An archipelago of around 700 islands has no single stage, and an online contest means Exuma or Abaco enters on exactly the same footing as Nassau.
Twelve separate contests a year, so missing the 25th one month costs you nothing more than a wait until the 1st.
Entry is open from age 13, putting BJC-year students and long practising poets in the same reading pile.

What winners and entrants receive

Cash prizes for the winning poems, announced on the 30th of the month you entered.
A participation certificate for every Bahamian entrant, placing or not.
Win a month and your next entry costs nothing, and the same applies after three months of entering in a row.
Top-scoring poems appear on the public leaderboard at writoryofficial.com/leaderboard.

Dialect verse, spoken word pieces, sonnets, ballads, haiku and open free verse are all accepted, in Bahamian dialect, standard English, Haitian Creole or whichever language the poem arrived in.

Key facts

Entries open the 1st, close the 25th at 11:59 PM IST, results on the 30th.
One poem $5, two poems $8, five poems $15 (Rs 150 / Rs 220 / Rs 450 in India).
Every poem scored by human judges on five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme.
A participation certificate for every entrant, not only winners, and the score is visible in your profile.
Cash prizes for winners, free entry the following month for winners, open worldwide from age 13, any language.

Questions

I write in Bahamian dialect. Will the judges understand it?

Yes. Writory accepts poems in any language and never asks for a translation, so dialect work is read as submitted and scored on its craft, not on how closely it sits to standard English.

My poems are built for the mic. Does spoken word stand a chance on the page?

There is no set form, so a performance piece is judged as text on the same five criteria as everything else, creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, and those five scores are saved to your Writory profile.

What does it cost to enter from The Bahamas?

Fees are charged in US dollars: $5 for one poem, $8 for two and $15 for five, and since the Bahamian dollar is pegged one to one to the US dollar there is no exchange arithmetic to do. Winners enter free the month after they win, and three consecutive months of entering also earns a free entry.

How long is the wait between submitting and hearing back?

Submission runs from the 1st to the 25th and results are announced on the 30th, so a poem sent early in the month is settled before that month ends.

By the Writory editorial team. Updated July 2026.

Enter the August contest · International poetry contest · Past winners · Read the winning poems