Poetry Contest Hong Kong 2026, 新詩 & English Verse

Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for Hong Kong poets. Write in Cantonese, Chinese or English, win cash prizes, earn certificates and detailed judge scores.

Hong Kong reads poetry in two scripts at once. Schoolchildren still memorise Tang dynasty verse, yet the city's own voice is the 新詩 of Leung Ping-kwan, who wrote as Yesi and turned street markets, city crossings and bowls of soup into poems, and of Xi Xi, who won the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature in 2019. Around them sits a genuinely bilingual scene, with Voice & Verse 聲韻詩刊 printing Chinese and English poetry side by side, Cha publishing the city's English language poets, and Bei Dao's International Poetry Nights bringing the world's poets to Hong Kong since 2009.

Writory runs a monthly international poetry contest that takes all of that exactly as it is, 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. Poets from more than 50 countries have entered Writory, and Hong Kong work is read in exactly that company.

Writory holds a monthly international poetry contest that Hong Kong poets can enter in Cantonese, standard written Chinese, English or any other language, with cash prizes for winners and a certificate for everyone who submits.

Why enter

Poems in Cantonese, standard written Chinese and English are all scored on the same five criteria of creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, so the language you think in is never a handicap.
There is no set form, which means a seven character 絕句 and a page of free verse about a tram ride are each read on their own terms.
Twelve separate contests a year, so a poem that misses the 25th only waits until the 1st for its next chance.
Entry is open from age 13, putting Form 2 students and long practising poets in the same reading pile.
The Public Libraries' 全港詩詞創作比賽 alternates between 律詩 years and 詞 years, while Writory gives Hong Kong poets a monthly route to an international readership.

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 Hong Kong 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 month's top poems appear on the public leaderboard at writoryofficial.com/leaderboard.

Classical 律詩 and 絕句, modern 新詩, Cantonese verse, English free verse, haiku and prose poetry are all accepted, in Chinese, Cantonese, English 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 Cantonese, sometimes with English mixed in. Can I enter that?

Yes. Writory accepts poems in any language, so Cantonese, standard written Chinese, English and code-mixed work are all valid entries, and you never need to supply a translation alongside them.

Do you take traditional characters?

Yes. Submit in 繁體字 exactly as you wrote the poem. Judges score the writing, not the script, and nothing is converted or translated at any stage.

How can a 絕句 be judged against English free verse fairly?

The judges do not rank forms against each other; they score craft. Every poem is marked on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, and those five scores describe the poem's own strengths rather than its distance from some other form.

What does it cost to enter from Hong Kong?

Fees are charged in US dollars: $5 for one poem, $8 for two and $15 for five, which the currency peg keeps at roughly HK$39, HK$62 and HK$117. Winners enter free the month after they win, and three consecutive months of entering also earns a free entry.

How long is the wait between submitting and results?

Submission runs from the 1st to the 25th and results are published 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