How Do Poetry Contests Work?
Quick answer: How do poetry contests work? You submit poems by a deadline, judges score entries, and winners receive prizes or publication. The process, start to finish.
A poetry contest works like this: you submit one or more poems by a deadline, sometimes with an entry fee, judges read and rank the entries, and winners receive prizes, which may be cash, publication, certificates, or all three. Most contests judge anonymously, meaning your name is removed before anyone reads your poem.
Beyond that skeleton, contests differ widely in rhythm and transparency. Annual prizes can take six months to announce; monthly contests turn around in weeks. Writory's cycle is typical of the faster kind: entries open on the 1st and close on the 25th of each month, results arrive on the 30th, and every entrant, not just winners, receives a five-criteria score breakdown.
The typical pipeline, entry to results
After the deadline closes, entries are checked against the rules: line limits, theme, formatting, anonymity. Ineligible poems are removed unread or unscored. First readers, sometimes called screeners, then read everything and pass a longlist upward. A final judge, often a named poet, selects the shortlist and winners from that longlist.
Anonymised judging is the industry standard for reputable contests, so your publication history and follower count buy nothing on the page. This is precisely what makes contests attractive to unknown poets: the field is as level as poetry gets.
Fees, prizes, and how the money works
Entry fees fund prizes, judges, and administration. A healthy ratio matters: a contest charging a large fee to award a tiny prize deserves suspicion, while free-entry contests and low-fee monthlies with real cash prizes are common and legitimate. Some contests offer free entry rewards or fee waivers; take them when offered, since they change your cost-benefit instantly.
Prizes vary from token to life-changing. Beyond money, look at what else winning brings: publication, a certificate, a judge's comment, or scored feedback. For developing poets, a contest that tells you why you scored what you scored is worth more than a slightly larger prize pot that returns silence.
Reading the rules like a professional
Before entering any contest, find answers to five questions in its terms. What rights do you keep in your poem if you win? Is previously published work eligible, and how is 'published' defined? Are simultaneous submissions allowed? How many poems per entry, and what are the line limits? And when exactly are results announced, so you know when your poem is free again?
A contest that answers all five clearly is usually well run. A contest whose terms are vague about rights, or which charges high fees while naming no judge and publishing no past winners, is one to skip.
What poets can take from this
- Enter early in the window; last-day technical problems are the commonest avoidable disaster.
- Follow formatting and anonymity rules exactly; screeners remove violations unread.
- Check the fee-to-prize ratio and the presence of a named judge or visible past winners before paying.
- Keep a copy of the exact version you entered, including the title.
- Note the results date in your calendar so you know when to send the poem elsewhere.
Try it yourself
Write a poem told from the point of view of a contest screener at midnight, reading the hundredth entry of the evening, when one line suddenly makes them sit up.
Questions
Are poetry contests judged anonymously?
Reputable ones, almost always. Names are stripped before reading so entries compete on the page alone. If a contest requires your name on the manuscript itself, read the rest of its terms with extra care.
How many poems should I enter in a contest?
Enter your single strongest poem before you consider multiples. Where multiple entries are allowed, only add poems that are genuinely different in mode; three variations on one poem compete with each other.
Do you keep the rights to your poem after a contest?
Usually you keep copyright, while winning poems grant the organiser first or non-exclusive publication rights. The terms page will say precisely; if it does not, ask before entering.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
Enter a Writory poetry contest
Enter the September contest and have your own poem read and scored. That first entry makes you a Writorian.