Poetry Contest Papua New Guinea 2026, Tok Pisin

Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for Papua New Guinean poets. Write in English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu or your tok ples, win cash prizes, earn certificates and scores.

Papua New Guinea holds more than 800 living languages, and its written poetry is barely two generations old, born when the Kovave journal at the University of Papua New Guinea began printing its students in 1969. Kumalau Tawali's The Bush Kanaka Speaks, winner of the 1969 Waigani poetry competition, and John Kasaipwalova's Reluctant Flame of 1971 came out of that Port Moresby moment and are still studied in PNG classrooms. The Crocodile Prize, named for Vincent Eri's novel, carried a national poetry award through the 2010s, and today Ples Singsing publishes tok singsing in Tok Pisin and English, with Michael Dom's work among it.

Writory runs a monthly international poetry contest that takes all of that exactly as it stands, 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 saved to the poet's profile. Poets from more than 50 countries have entered Writory, and work from Papua New Guinea is read in exactly that company.

Writory holds a monthly international poetry contest that Papua New Guinean poets can enter in English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu or any tok ples, with cash prizes for winners and a certificate for everyone who submits.

Why enter

English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu and tok ples entries reach the same judges under the same five criteria, so the language of the poem never decides its place in the queue.
There is no set form, so a chant carried over from the singsing ground and a tight English sonnet are each read on their own terms.
Twelve separate contests a year, which means a poem that misses the 25th only waits until the 1st.
Entry is open from age 13, putting secondary school writers and UPNG-trained poets in the same reading pile.
PNG poets whose work otherwise lives on blogs and Facebook pages get a monthly route to an international readership with cash on the line.

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 Papua New Guinean 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 ten strongest poems of the month are posted to the public leaderboard at writoryofficial.com/leaderboard.

Free verse, spoken word, chants and laments carried over from oral tradition, haiku and rhymed English verse are all accepted, in English, Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu or whichever of the country's 800 languages 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 Tok Pisin and some lines slip into my tok ples. Can I still enter?

Yes. Writory accepts poems in any language, so Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, English, a village language and mixed language work are all valid entries, and you never need to supply a translation alongside them.

How can judges score a Tok Pisin poem against English free verse fairly?

They do not compare languages, they score craft. Each poem is marked on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, and those five numbers land in your Writory profile where you can read them yourself.

What will it cost me to submit from Papua New Guinea?

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