Poetry Contest Philippines 2026, Tula Online
Quick answer: Monthly online poetry contest for Filipino poets. Submit tula in Filipino or English, any style, any theme. Cash prizes, certificates and scores every month.
Filipino poetry has a longer memory than most colonial literatures allow for. Francisco Balagtas finished Florante at Laura in 1838 in twelve syllable awit quatrains and is still read in classrooms today. The balagtasan named after him turned poetry into public argument, two makata debating in verse in front of a crowd, a form José Corazón de Jesús made famous in the 1920s and one that schools still stage. Older still are the tanaga, four lines of seven syllables carrying a talinghaga, and the diona, which does the same work in three. Later came the Palanca Awards, honouring tula in Filipino and poetry in English side by side, and National Artists for Literature including José García Villa, Virgilio S. Almario and Bienvenido Lumbera.
Writory's monthly contest is built for a country that writes in more than one language at a time. Send a tula in Filipino, a balak in Cebuano, a daniw in Ilocano, a poem in Hiligaynon, Bikol or Waray, English verse, or a piece that switches mid line the way ordinary Filipino speech does. Nothing needs translating. Entries open on the 1st, close on the 25th and results are published on the 30th, winners receive cash prizes, and every single entrant, not only the winners, receives a participation certificate. Each poem also comes back scored on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, kept permanently in the poet's profile. Writory has received entries from more than 50 countries, so a tula written in Iloilo or Cagayan de Oro is read in the same round as poems from Europe, Africa and the Americas.
Writory is a monthly international poetry contest open to Filipino poets at home and overseas, in Filipino, Cebuano, Ilocano, English or any other language, with cash prizes for winners and a participation certificate for every entrant.
Why enter
- Open from the age of 13, and every entrant receives a certificate, which counts in a school and university culture where a certificate is real evidence for a portfolio, a scholarship file or a resume.
- Cebuano balak, Ilocano daniw, Hiligaynon, Bikol and Waray poems are accepted directly, not treated as regional variants of a Tagalog contest.
- Taglish and code switching are not penalised, because the poem is scored on how it works and not on staying inside one language.
- Filipinos working abroad enter on exactly the same terms as poets in Manila, Cebu or Davao, since the whole contest is online.
- There is a new contest every month rather than one annual deadline, so a student who finds Writory during Buwan ng Wika does not have to wait a year to take part.
What winners and entrants receive
- Cash prizes for the month's winning tula, announced together with the results on the 30th.
- A participation certificate is issued to every Filipino entrant, winner or not, and stays available in the profile.
- Ten poems make the monthly leaderboard at writoryofficial.com/leaderboard, which anyone can open and read.
- Win and your next month is free, and any poet who enters three months in a row also earns a free entry, which rewards the steady writer rather than the lucky one.
Tula, tanaga, diona, awit, korido, balagtasan verse, Cebuano balak, Ilocano daniw, spoken word written for the page, sonnets and free verse are all accepted, in Filipino, English or any Philippine 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 send a tula in Filipino, or does the contest expect English?
A tula in Filipino is a complete entry with nothing missing. Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Bikol, Waray and Kapampangan poems are accepted the same way, and so is a poem that moves between Filipino and English inside a single stanza. There is no translation requirement at any point.
How can a tanaga be judged fairly next to poems from other countries?
A tanaga is not asked to look like an English poem in order to score. All entries are marked on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, so seven syllable lines doing their work read as structure done well, and the five marks are released to the poet in their profile.
Magkano ang entry fee, and what does it include?
Fees are in US dollars: $5 for one poem, $8 for two poems and $15 for five. Each entry includes the certificate and the five criteria score at no extra charge. A winner does not pay in the month that follows, and any poet who has entered three months in a row also gets one entry at no cost.
Kailan ang results, and how long is the wait?
Submissions open on the 1st and close on the 25th, and winners are announced on the 30th of the same month. A Filipino poet who submits early in the cycle knows the outcome inside four weeks, and the next round opens straight afterwards.
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By the Writory editorial team. Updated July 2026.
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