Poetry Contest Mauritius 2026, Kreol & French

Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for Mauritian poets. Write in Kreol Morisien, French or English, win cash prizes, earn certificates and detailed scores.

Mauritian poetry has never settled into a single language. Dev Virahsawmy spent a lifetime proving Kreol Morisien could carry anything, putting Shakespeare into the language spoken in every yard on the island, while Édouard Maunick, born in Flacq, carried Mauritian verse in French out to the world and Malcolm de Chazal's Sens-Plastique drew André Breton's admiration in the 1940s. Behind the page runs the sega, its Creole verses sung to the ravanne, and the Bhojpuri Geet-Gawai that UNESCO inscribed as intangible cultural heritage in 2016.

Writory runs a monthly international poetry contest that takes every one of those languages as it finds them, 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 Mauritian work is read in exactly that company.

Writory holds a monthly international poetry contest that Mauritian poets can enter in Kreol Morisien, French, English, Hindi, Bhojpuri or any other language, with cash prizes for winners and a certificate for everyone who submits.

Why enter

Kreol Morisien, French, English and Bhojpuri entries are all scored on the same five criteria, so no language waits behind another.
There is no set form, which means a sega-tinged lyric in Creole and a strict sonnet in French are each read on their own terms.
Twelve separate contests a year, so missing the 25th one month costs you nothing more than a wait until the 1st.
Entry is open from age 13, putting collège writers and long practising poets in the same reading pile.
Mauritian poets used to the occasional local concours de poésie get 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 Mauritian 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 strongest poems of the month are posted to the public leaderboard at writoryofficial.com/leaderboard.

Free verse, sonnets, sega lyrics, ghazals, haiku and prose poems are all accepted, in Kreol Morisien, French, English, Hindi, Bhojpuri, Tamil 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 Kreol Morisien, and sometimes in French. Can I still enter?

Yes. Writory accepts poems in any language, so Morisien, French, English, Hindi, Bhojpuri, Tamil and mixed language work are all valid entries, and you never need to supply a translation alongside them.

How can judges compare a Creole sega lyric with a French sonnet fairly?

They do not compare forms or languages, they score craft. Each poem is marked on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, and those five numbers come back to you with the result, so you can see exactly where the poem stood.

What will it cost me to submit from Mauritius?

Fees are charged in US dollars: $5 buys one poem, $8 buys two and $15 buys five. Winners pay nothing the month after they win, and three consecutive months of entering also earns a free entry.

How long is the wait between submitting and finding out?

Submission runs from the 1st to the 25th and the announcement comes 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