Poetry Contest Germany 2026, English & German Poems
Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for poets in Germany. Submit in English, German or any language, win cash prizes, earn certificates and detailed judging scores.
German poetry holds two extremes at once. There is the weight of Goethe, Holderlin and Rilke, and there is Paul Celan's Todesfuge, which changed what the language could be asked to carry. Against that stands a very loud present, a slam scene that fills halls in Berlin, Leipzig and Munich, and the Haus fur Poesie, which hosts the poesiefestival berlin. Writory is a monthly competition that has room for both, with entries taken from the 1st to the 25th.
Results are announced on the 30th, with cash for the winning poets and a participation certificate for every entrant on the list. Each poem is measured on five points, emotion, structure, creativity, language and theme, and that measurement is recorded in your profile. Gedichte auf Deutsch are accepted as written, as are poems in Turkish, Arabic, Russian, English or any other language spoken in Germany, from the age of 13 upward. More than 50 countries have been represented among entrants, so the pool a Gedicht joins here is genuinely wide.
Germany runs the largest poetry slam culture in Europe, hundreds of stages from Hamburg to Munich, while its printed prizes, the Peter Huchel Preis among them, crown one book a year. Between the stage and the annual prize sits a wide space: a written poem, finished this month, wanting a serious reading now. That is the space a monthly judged contest occupies.
Poems in German are as welcome as poems in English, scored blind on the same five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme. The breakdown comes back to the poet with the results, which is a different kind of answer than applause or silence, it says exactly where the marks went.
Entries close on the 25th of every month, around 8:30 in the evening Berlin time in summer and 7:30 in winter, results follow by the 30th, winners are paid through PayPal, and every entrant receives a certificate carrying their name and the title Writorian. All rights stay with the poet.
Writory is a monthly poetry competition open to everyone writing in Germany, in German, English, Turkish or another language, with prize money for winners and certificates for all entrants.
Why enter
- German language entries need no translation and lose nothing in the marking, which applies the same five points to every language in the pool.
- Slam texts are welcome on the page. A piece built for performance is measured on emotion and language rather than penalised for not looking like a Sonett.
- The contest reopens every month, which fits a scene where slams happen weekly and most print prizes happen once a year.
- Germany's international poets, the students, the newcomers and the long term residents writing in Turkish, Arabic or Russian, all enter on identical terms.
- If you work mostly auf Deutsch there is a dedicated German language contest page on Writory, though entering from here reaches exactly the same contest.
What winners and entrants receive
- The winning poems each month are paid cash prizes.
- Every entrant in Germany receives a participation certificate, not only the poets who place.
- Winning one month means the next month's entry carries no fee.
- Three months of entering in a row also unlocks a free submission.
- Each month's top ten poems are shown on the open leaderboard, not merely mailed to the poets concerned.
Sonett, Ballade, Lied, Elegie, haiku, freie Verse and slam texts written down for the page are all accepted, in German or in any other language.
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 submit a Gedicht in German rather than in English?
Yes, and it will be read in German. Writory accepts any language and does not translate entries before marking. If most of your work is in German, the site also has a German language contest page, but that page and this one lead to the same monthly contest.
Is a German poem measured against English ones, and is that fair?
All entries share one pool and one set of five points, creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, and those points describe qualities that survive translation. Your itemised result is saved in your profile after the announcement.
How much is the entry fee from Germany?
Billing is in US dollars, not euros. One poem is $5, two are $8, five are $15. A win exempts you from paying the following month, and three consecutive monthly entries earn an exemption too.
When do the results come?
Results are dated the 30th. Entries stop on the 25th, which leaves only a short gap between the deadline and the verdict, and both the winners list and your own scores go live on the same day.
Kann ich Gedichte auf Deutsch einreichen?
Ja. Der Wettbewerb akzeptiert Gedichte in jeder Sprache, Deutsch eingeschlossen, bewertet nach denselben fuenf Kriterien wie alle anderen: Kreativitaet, Emotion, Struktur, Sprache und Thema.
When is the deadline in German time?
Entries close on the 25th of every month at 11:59 PM Indian time, roughly 8:30 PM in Germany in summer and 7:30 PM in winter. Results are published by the 30th of the same month.
How are German winners paid?
Through PayPal, which serves Germany directly, in US dollars. Every entrant, winning or not, also receives the judged score out of 100 and a named certificate carrying the title Writorian.
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By the Writory editorial team. Updated July 2026.
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