Poetry Contest France 2026, English & French Poems
Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for poets in France. Submit in English, French or any language, win cash prizes, earn certificates and see five criteria scores.
French poetry has been rewriting itself for eight hundred years, from Villon's testaments to Ronsard's roses, from Les Fleurs du mal to Rimbaud abandoning verse at nineteen, from Mallarme's white space to Apollinaire's calligrammes and the plain speech of Prevert. The country still marks the season with Le Printemps des Poetes each March and fills the Place Saint-Sulpice for the Marche de la Poesie. Writory adds a monthly rhythm to that calendar, taking entries from the 1st to the 25th.
The announcement follows on the 30th. Cash goes to the winning poets, and a participation certificate is prepared for every person who entered. Marking covers five aspects, theme, language, structure, emotion and creativity, and your own figures are filed in your Writory profile. Poems in French are accepted without translation, as are poems in English, Occitan, Breton, Arabic or any other language you work in, from the age of 13 upward. Writory has taken work from poets in more than 50 countries, and a French poem joins that company untranslated.
The French calendar peaks twice: the Printemps des Poetes fills March with readings, and the Prix Apollinaire, running since 1941, crowns one collection a year. Between those fixed points a poet with a finished poem in June has nowhere serious to send it. A monthly contest with a returned scorecard is built for exactly those months.
Poems in French are as welcome as poems in English, judged on the same five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme. The reading is blind, so a first submission from Lyon carries the same weight as a fiftieth from London, and the full breakdown lands in the poet's profile with the results.
Entries close on the 25th of every month, around 8:30 in the evening Paris time in summer and 7:30 in winter, with results by the 30th. Winners are paid through PayPal, which serves France directly, every entrant receives a certificate carrying their name and the title Writorian, and every right to the poem stays with its author.
Writory holds a monthly poetry competition open to anyone writing in France, in French, English or another language, with cash for the winners and a certificate for every entrant.
Why enter
- A poem in French does not need an English version. It is read as submitted and marked on the same five aspects as everything else in the pool.
- The calendar here is monthly rather than seasonal, so you are never waiting for the next Printemps des Poetes to have somewhere to send work.
- Expatriates and French nationals compete together, which suits the many poets in Paris, Lyon and Toulouse who write in a language other than French.
- Fixed forms are not treated as old fashioned. An alexandrine sonnet earns marks under structure and language exactly as carefully as a prose poem does.
- You leave with a certificate for taking part and an itemised reading of the poem, instead of a silent inbox.
What winners and entrants receive
- Cash prizes are awarded monthly to the poems that finish at the top.
- Certificates of participation are sent to every entrant in France, whatever the result.
- The month after a win, your entry is free.
- Poets who enter three months in succession also receive an entry at no charge.
- The ten leading poems are posted to the public leaderboard on the site each month.
Sonnets, alexandrines, ballades, rondeaux, prose poems, vers libre and haiku in French are all welcome, and so is anything that refuses to sit inside a named form.
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
Can I send a poem written in French without translating it?
You can. French entries are accepted in their original form and are never machine translated before assessment. The contest takes work in any language, so a poem in Breton, Occitan or Arabic is equally acceptable, provided the writer is 13 or older.
Who reads the poems, and how is a result reached?
Assessment runs against five aspects that stay constant from month to month and from language to language, creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme. The score you receive is itemised in your profile, so an outcome is traceable rather than simply pronounced.
What does it cost to submit from France?
Charges are in US dollars: $5 buys one entry, $8 buys two, and $15 buys five. There is no fee at all in the month after you win, and a run of three consecutive monthly entries also earns one free submission.
When is the result published?
The month has a fixed shape. Nothing is accepted after the 25th, the winning poems are named on the 30th, and the itemised marks reach your profile on that same date.
Quelle est la date limite en heure francaise?
Le concours ferme le 25 de chaque mois a 23h59, heure indienne, soit environ 20h30 en France en ete et 19h30 en hiver. Les resultats sont publies le 30 du meme mois.
Can I enter poems written in French?
Yes. The contest accepts poems in any language, French included, and they are judged on the same five criteria as everything else. A bilingual poet can enter work in both languages in the same month.
Is there a free way to enter from France?
Two earned routes: monthly winners receive free entry to the next round, and entering three consecutive months earns a free entry as well. Nothing needs a membership or a subscription first.
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By the Writory editorial team. Updated July 2026.
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