Blind Judging
Quick answer: Blind judging means contest entries are read without names or identifying details, so poems are scored on merit alone. See how it works and why it matters.
Blind judging means that the people evaluating a contest or journal submission read the work without knowing who wrote it: names, bios and identifying details are removed before poems reach the readers. The aim is simple fairness. A poem by a first-time entrant and a poem by a prize-winning professor arrive on the judge's desk looking identical, and only the writing can argue for itself.
For emerging poets this is the best news in publishing. Reputation, connections and an impressive bio buy nothing under blind reading, which is why unknown writers win serious prizes every year. It also explains some of the stricter submission rules you meet, since the whole system depends on entries arriving genuinely anonymous.
How It Works in Practice
Administration and judging are separated. A coordinator receives entries, logs names and contact details, then passes forward numbered manuscripts with all identification stripped. Judges read, score and rank by number; only after decisions are final does the coordinator reunite numbers with names. In multi-round contests the same anonymity holds through longlist and shortlist stages. Writory runs its monthly judging this way, scoring each anonymous entry on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme, so the scoreboard reflects the poem and nothing else.
Your Responsibilities as an Entrant
Blind judging fails at the entrant's end more often than the organiser's. Keep your name out of the manuscript file, the filename and any headers or footers. Avoid dedications and epigraphs that identify you, and think twice about entering a poem you have already posted publicly, since a searchable line breaks anonymity at a stroke. If the rules say the poem must not contain identifying information, they mean all of it, including the byline you paste from habit.
What Blind Judging Cannot Do
Anonymity removes reputation bias, not taste. A judge who loves compressed free verse will still favour it over expansive narrative, blind or not, which is why researching a named judge's own work remains fair play. Blind judging also cannot equalise experience: practised poems tend to beat first drafts whoever wrote them. What it guarantees is narrower and worth having, that nobody wins on their name.
What poets can take from this
- Remove your name from the document body, headers, footers and the filename itself.
- Check exported files for hidden author metadata before uploading.
- Avoid entering publicly posted poems into anonymously judged contests.
- Research the named final judge's taste; anonymity does not make taste neutral.
- Trust near misses under blind judging as honest feedback on the poem, not on you.
Try it yourself
Write the poem you would send if nobody could ever know you wrote it: the subject you avoid because of what readers who know you might think. Blind judging exists; write like it.
Questions
What is the difference between blind judging and anonymous submission?
Anonymous submission describes how you send the work, with identifying details removed; blind judging describes how it is read and scored. Contests usually require the first in order to deliver the second.
Can judges really not tell who wrote a poem?
Occasionally a distinctive style is guessable, and ethical judges recuse themselves if they recognise a poem from a workshop or elsewhere. For the overwhelming majority of entries, anonymity holds completely.
Does blind judging improve my chances as an unknown poet?
It levels the field rather than tilting it: your poem competes on quality alone, without losing ground to famous names. Unknown poets win blind-judged contests regularly, which rarely happens where bios are visible.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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