Poetry Contest Italy 2026, English & Italian Poems
Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for poets in Italy. Submit in English, Italian or any language, win cash prizes, earn certificates and detailed judging scores.
The sonnet was invented in Italy, at the Sicilian court of Frederick II, and Giacomo da Lentini gets the credit for it. Almost everything since has been a conversation with that beginning, through Dante's terza rima, through Petrarch's Canzoniere, through Leopardi writing L'infinito, then Ungaretti compressing a war into a single line and Montale taking the Nobel in 1975. Alda Merini kept the lyric burning through the twentieth century and Pasolini wrote in Friulian as well as Italian. Writory offers poets in Italy a competition every month, and the submission window runs from the 1st until the 25th.
Results are declared on the 30th, with cash prizes for the leading poems and a participation certificate for every entrant. Five criteria are used, theme, structure, emotion, language and creativity, and each poet can read their own figures in their profile. Poesie in italiano need no translation, and neither do poems in Neapolitan, Sicilian, Sardinian, English or any other language. Anyone from 13 years old upward may take part, and poems have arrived at Writory from upward of 50 countries, so an Italian entry is measured in wide company.
Every month Writory opens a poetry competition to poets in Italy, in Italian, in dialect, in English or in any other language, with prize money and certificates for all.
Why enter
- Fixed forms are properly assessed. A sonetto or a stretch of terza rima earns its marks under structure and language rather than being read as a museum piece.
- Dialect poetry is accepted. Neapolitan, Sicilian, Sardinian and Friulian entries are marked exactly as written.
- The contest resets on the 1st of every month, so a near deadline is always available instead of one distant concorso.
- Expatriates and Italians enter side by side, which suits Rome, Milan and Bologna, where a good share of working poets write in English.
- Everyone who enters receives a certificate and a marked score, not only the poets who finish at the top.
What winners and entrants receive
- The top poems each month are awarded cash prizes.
- A certificate of participation reaches every entrant in Italy.
- Winners submit free of charge in the month that follows.
- A run of three monthly entries also earns one free submission.
- The ten highest placed poems are displayed on Writory's public leaderboard every month.
Sonetto, canzone, terza rima, ottava rima, ballata, endecasillabo, haiku and verso libero are all accepted, in Italian, in dialect or in another 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 enter with a poem written in Italian?
Yes, and it stays in Italian. Nothing is translated before marking, and the contest also takes Neapolitan, Sicilian, Sardinian and any other language. Anyone aged 13 or above writing from Italy can take part.
How are poems in different languages compared with one another?
Through five criteria that do not depend on any single language, creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme. Each poet's figures against those five are written to their profile when results appear, so the comparison is visible rather than asserted.
What is the cost of entering from Italy?
Writory prices entries in dollars, not euro. It is $5 to submit one poem, $8 for two, and $15 for five. The month after a win is free, and so is the month that follows three consecutive entries.
When are the winners published?
On the 30th of each month. The closing date is the 25th, so no poem waits long, and the public winners list and the private score breakdowns are released together.
Related contests
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