Poetry Contest Barbados 2026, Bajan Verse Welcome

Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for Barbadian poets. Write in English or Bajan, win cash prizes, earn certificates and a detailed score on every poem you enter.

Barbados gave Caribbean poetry the idea of nation language, Kamau Brathwaite's name for verse that moves to the rhythm of Bajan speech rather than the imported iambic line, argued in History of the Voice and practised across The Arrivants. The island also built Bim, the magazine Frank Collymore founded in 1942 that printed early work by George Lamming and Sam Selvon, and it still reads new poems today as BIM: Arts for the 21st Century, edited at Cave Hill by Esther Phillips, the country's first Poet Laureate. And every year, in the season leading up to Independence in November, the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts, NIFCA to everyone on the island, hands out gold, silver and bronze awards for literary work.

Writory runs a monthly international poetry contest that takes Barbadian work as it comes, in standard English, Bajan or anything between, 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 a poem sent from Bridgetown is read in exactly that company.

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

Why enter

Bajan and standard English entries are scored on the same five criteria, so nation language never waits behind the Queen's English.
There is no set form, which means a piece written for a Bridgetown open mic is read on the same terms as a sonnet.
Twelve separate contests a year instead of one November window, so you are not saving everything for NIFCA season.
Entry is open from age 13, putting secondary school writers and long practising poets in the same reading pile.
Poets from more than 50 countries have entered, and a submission from Speightstown or Oistins lands in that same pool every month.

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 Barbadian 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.
A place for the month's top poems on the public leaderboard at writoryofficial.com/leaderboard.

Spoken word, performance pieces, free verse, sonnets, haiku and rhymed forms are all accepted, written in standard English, Bajan or whichever voice 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 Bajan. Will judges outside the Caribbean understand it?

Enter it as it is. Writory accepts poems in any language and never asks for a translation, and a poem in Bajan is scored on its craft, not on how closely it resembles standard English.

I perform spoken word. Does a piece written for the stage work here?

Entries are submitted as text, so send the words themselves. There is no set form, and a performance piece is judged on the same five criteria as everything else: creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, with the numbers saved to your profile.

How is this different from NIFCA?

NIFCA runs once a year around Independence in November. Writory runs twelve times a year, with entries open from the 1st to the 25th and results on the 30th, so there is a fresh contest whenever the poem is ready rather than one deadline each November.

What will it cost me to submit from Barbados?

Fees are charged in US dollars: $5 buys one poem, $8 buys two and $15 buys five. Winners pay nothing the month after they win, and three consecutive months of entering also earns a free entry.

How long is the wait between submitting and finding out?

Submission runs from the 1st to the 25th and the announcement comes 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