Poetry Contest Guyana 2026, Enter Online
Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for Guyanese poets at home and abroad. Write in English or Creolese, win cash prizes, earn certificates and see judging scores.
Guyana produced Martin Carter, whose Poems of Resistance made political verse sound like ordinary speech, and Egbert Martin before him, and it sent Grace Nichols, John Agard, David Dabydeen and Fred D'Aguiar out to readers across the world. It is the only English speaking nation in South America, it hosted the first CARIFESTA in 1972, and it runs the Guyana Prize for Literature. Writory adds a monthly option to that short list, open from the 1st to the 25th.
Results appear on the 30th. Poets who place are paid cash, and everyone who entered receives a participation certificate. Marking uses five criteria, structure, creativity, theme, emotion and language, all of which show up in your profile once the results are out. Creolese is accepted as a language in its own right, alongside English, Guyanese Hindustani and the Indigenous languages of the interior, and entrants need only be 13 or older.
Writory runs a monthly poetry competition that Guyanese poets can enter in English or Creolese, from Georgetown, Linden, Berbice or anywhere in the diaspora.
Why enter
- Creolese entries are not corrected into standard English. The poem is marked as written, which is the only way a Creolese poem can be marked honestly.
- Guyanese poets abroad, in Toronto, Brooklyn, London or Bridgetown, enter on exactly the terms as poets still at home.
- A country this size rarely has a poetry deadline every month. Writory has twelve of them a year.
- The certificate is for entering, not for winning, which counts when a student is assembling a school or university portfolio.
- The entry pool spans more than 50 countries, so a poem about the Essequibo or the Rupununi is read well beyond the Caribbean.
What winners and entrants receive
- Poets who place at the top of the month take home cash.
- A participation certificate is issued to every Guyanese entrant, at home or abroad.
- Winners are not charged for their entry the following month.
- Three consecutive months of entering earns a free submission as well.
- A public leaderboard names the ten best poems of the month.
Creolese verse, folk and oral rhythms, protest poetry in the Carter line, calypso inflected stanzas, sonnets, ballads and free verse are all accepted.
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 am Guyanese but living overseas. Am I still eligible?
Yes. There is no residency requirement, so a poet in Georgetown and a poet in Queens or Scarborough enter the same contest under the same rules. The only condition is that you are 13 or older.
Will a poem in Creolese be marked down for its language?
No. The five criteria in use, creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, assess what a poem does inside its own idiom rather than how closely it matches standard English. Your criterion by criterion result is stored in your profile.
What does an entry cost in Guyana?
Fees are set in US dollars, so a single poem is $5, two together are $8, and a set of five is $15. If you win, the next month costs you nothing, and three months of unbroken entry lifts the fee once as well.
When are winners named?
The 25th is the last day to send anything, and the 30th is when the winners go up. Your own marks arrive in your profile on the day of the announcement.
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By the Writory editorial team. Updated July 2026.
Enter the September contest · All poetry competitions 2026: deadlines & prizes · International poetry contest · Past winners · Read the winning poems