Coleridge Poetry Prize
"The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew. The furrow followed free".
Thank you to everyone who entered our 2025 poetry competition. We received over 100 poems which are now with our judge for review! The winner and runner-up will be notified ahead of our AGM on Saturday 18th October. Details of our 2026 poetry competition will be released in the New Year.
The Coleridge Poetry Prize is our annual poetry competition which we relaunched back in 2024. It was named in honour of the romantic poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In 1797 Coleridge spent many days walking on Exmoor from his home in Nether Stowey and was inspired by the combination of its landscape and opium to write some of his most famous poems: Kubla Khan, the Rime of the Ancient Mariner and, with William Wordsworth, the Lyrical Ballads.
Competition details:
- We are delighted to announce that the 2025 competition will be judged by local resident Tom Cain, Emeritus Professor at Newcastle University, and a published poet and critic.
- We are looking for poems (no longer than 40 lines) on any subject.
- It is free to enter this competition.
- Please submit your entry by email (info@exmoorsociety.com) as either a Word or PDF attachment.
- The attachment should please NOT have your name anywhere on it – our judge asks for entries to be unnamed so he can judge them “blind” without knowing the identity of the poet, to ensure complete impartiality
- There is a maximum of 3 entries per person
- The 2025 competition is now closed for judging. The 2026 competition will be launched soon!
Happy writing!
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