Poetry Contest Thailand 2026, Klon Paet Welcome

Quick answer: Monthly poetry contest for Thai poets. Write in Thai or English, klon, khlong or free verse, win cash prizes, earn certificates and detailed scores.

Thai poetry rests on five classical forms, khlong, chan, kap, klon and rai, and the eight syllable klon paet is the one every Thai student meets first, because Sunthorn Phu carried it to its height in Phra Aphai Mani. His lines are still recited in classrooms, June 26 is kept as Sunthorn Phu Day, and UNESCO honoured him as a great world poet on his bicentenary in 1986. The tradition has stayed alive since: Naowarat Pongpaiboon and Chiranan Pitpreecha each took the S.E.A. Write Award in Bangkok for books of Thai verse, and school halls across the country still run their own prakuat bot kawi.

Writory runs a monthly international poetry contest that takes Thai work exactly as it is written, 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 poems from Thailand are read in exactly that company.

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

Why enter

Thai and English entries are scored under the same five criteria, and a poem in Thai script never needs a translation beside it.
There is no set form, which means a four line khlong si suphap and a long unrhymed poem 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 matthayom students who learned klon paet in class alongside long-practising poets in the same reading pile.
Thai poets who normally only see a local prakuat bot kawi 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 Thai 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 are posted to the public leaderboard at writoryofficial.com/leaderboard.

Klon paet, khlong si suphap, kap, chan, rai, haiku and open free verse are all accepted, in Thai, 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 Thai script. Can I enter without translating my poem?

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

How can judges compare a klon paet with an English free verse poem fairly?

They do not compare forms, they score craft. Each poem is marked on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, and the same five marks apply to a klon paet and a free verse poem alike.

What will it cost me to submit from Thailand?

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.

Do rhyme rules like the ones in klon count against a free verse poem?

No. The judges hold no single prosody as the default, so a poem that follows Thai rhyme schemes and one that follows none are both scored only on how well they do what they set out to do.

By the Writory editorial team. Updated July 2026.

Enter the August contest · International poetry contest · Past winners · Read the winning poems