International Poetry Competition

Calling all budding poets, whatever your first language!

The Poetry Centre has launched a new poetry competition on the occasion of Oxford Brookes’ 150th anniversary. Entries are invited from poets from all over the world, with a separate category for speakers of English as a second language.

You have until 31 August to submit your poems for a chance to win a £1,000 prize. Entries will be judged by Bernard O’Donoghue and Hannah Lowe, and the winners will be announced later this year.

Visit the Poetry Centre’s website for full terms and conditions and to enter.

 Hands-on poetry at Live Friday in March 2014

The Poetry Centre was founded in 1998 within the Department of English and Modern Languages. With high-calibre, prize-winning staff, it works to promote research and to engage the local community in reading, writing and performing poetry.

A popular initiative is their Weekly Poem, which since its launch in 2007 has circulated hundreds of poems to a growing international mailing list. Subscribe for your poetry fix and explore the archive on the Weekly Poem website.

This is just one of the Centre’s many projects. In 2007 ‘Poetry on the Bus’ saw poets perform on Brookes buses and passengers submit their own journey-inspired poems, and in 2008-9 Oxford poets worked with refugees and asylum seekers to produce ‘See How I Land’, an anthology of new poetry. The Oxford City Poet position, created in 2011, was a joint initiative of the Poetry Centre and Oxford City Council, leading to a range of school and community projects and the appointment of an Oxford Youth Ambassador for Poetry.

More recently the Poetry Centre was involved in Live Friday, the launch of our anniversary celebrations at the Ashmolean Museum. ‘Business Poetry’ showcased poems written by students and staff from the Faculty of Business and offered visitors the chance to write and share their own compositions.  

Oxford Brookes’ links with the literary world extend beyond poetry. The university has an ongoing involvement with the Oxford Literary Festival, houses the Booker Prize archive, and runs a successful MA in Creative Writing, with teaching fellows including Philip Pullman and Kate Clanchy.

Find out more
Visit The Poetry Centre's website
Follow the green links to our interactive timeline and start exploring Brookes' history.