Poetry Contest Belize 2026, Kriol & Garifuna

Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for Belizean poets. Write in English, Kriol, Spanish, Garifuna or Maya, win cash prizes, earn certificates and detailed scores.

Raymond Barrow's Dawn is a Fisherman is the poem that carried Belizean light and water into the Caribbean anthologies of the 1950s, and the tradition around it runs wider than English alone. James Sullivan Martinez was already publishing Kriol-flavoured verse in Caribbean Jingles in 1920, Evan X Hyde of Amandala co-wrote Poems of Passion, Patriotism and Protest in 1981, Dangriga keeps alive the Garifuna song traditions that UNESCO recognised in 2001, and at the Image Factory in Belize City the poet Yasser Musa has kept readings and small press books moving since 1995.

Writory runs a monthly international poetry contest that takes all of those languages as they are, 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 Belizean work is read in exactly that company.

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

Why enter

Kriol, Garifuna, Spanish, Maya and English entries reach the same judges under the same five criteria, so no language waits at the back of the queue.
There is no set form, so a Kriol spoken word piece and a tight English sonnet are each read on their own terms.
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, which puts high school writers in Belize City and Belmopan in the same reading pile as long practising poets.
A poem sent from Dangriga or Punta Gorda is read against entries from more than 50 countries, and the deadline comes back 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 Belizean 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.
The strongest poems of the month are posted to the public leaderboard at writoryofficial.com/leaderboard.

Free verse, sonnets, Kriol spoken word, dub poetry, Garifuna song verse and haiku are all accepted, in English, Kriol, Spanish, Garifuna, Q'eqchi', Mopan, Yucatec Maya 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 Kriol rather than standard English. Is that a real entry?

Yes. Writory accepts poems in any language, so Kriol, Garifuna, Spanish, Q'eqchi', Mopan and Yucatec Maya all stand alongside English as valid entries, and you never need to supply a translation with them.

How can judges score a Garifuna lyric against an English sonnet fairly?

They do not compare forms, they score craft. Each poem is marked on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, and those five numbers land in your Writory profile where you can read them yourself.

What will it cost me to submit from Belize?

Fees are charged in US dollars: $5 buys one poem, $8 buys two and $15 buys five. With the Belize dollar pegged at two to one, that is BZ$10, BZ$16 and BZ$30. 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.

I am still in high school. Can I enter?

Yes, entry is open from age 13, so secondary school students anywhere in Belize can submit on the same terms as adults, and every entrant receives a participation certificate.

By the Writory editorial team. Updated July 2026.

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