Robert Graves Poetry Prize 2020

In partnership with Roehampton University

Winner: £1,000

Runners up: £100

The 2020 competition is now open for entries. Deadline 31 July 2020.

Sponsored by Marcus Beale Architects

The Robert Graves Poetry prize is open and accepting submissions. The Prize is a collaboration between the Roehampton Poetry Centre, based at Roehampton University and Wimbledon BookFest.

The Prize, named after poet, historical novelist and critic Robert Graves, offers an opportunity for emerging and established poets to be recognised for their skill by the one of country’s leading centres for poetry, and renowned literary festival. It is open to everyone and unrestricted by location, genre, or subject.

The Prize will be given to the best single poem submitted, multiple entries are encouraged but poems will be judged separately. The winner will receive £1,000 and two runner ups will both receive £100. The 2020 Robert Graves Prize will be awarded at Wimbledon BookFest in October.

We are very grateful to Marcus Beale Architects who have sponsored the Prize for the fourth year running.

Past Winners:
2019 Winner: Andre Mangeot – ‘Scrimshaw’. Runners up: Sharon Black – ‘Surprisingly’ & Mark Fiddes – ‘El Pacto De Olvido
2018 Winner: Clive Watkins for his poem ‘Mirror, Mirror’.
2017 Winner: Octavia Lamb, ‘Ivor Gurney Goes to War’.

The Judges:
Paul O’Prey is former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Roehampton, London, and a Professor of Modern Literature. After studying at Oxford in the 1970s, he spent time assisting the poet Robert Graves at his home in Mallorca. He has edited Graves’s Selected Poems for Penguin, Graves’s essays on poetry, as well as two volumes of his correspondence with other writers.

Peter Straus is a literary agent and founder of The Lost Man Booker Prize. His authors have won every literary acclaim, from the Booker to the Nobel Laureate. His extensive author list includes household names such as Carol Ann Duffy, Kate Atkinson and Colm Toíbín.

Notes on Entering the Competition:
Please pay your entry fee [paypal link below] and record the paypal ref. Entries should then be emailed to robertgraves@wimbledonbookfest.org quoting you paypal payment ref.

Note: We do encourage multiple entries, and each entry will be judged separately. The poems should be single-spaced and no longer than 40 lines. This prize is open to global entries and poems need to be written in English, be original and unpublished at the time of submission.

Entries that are sent to us without the PayPal receipt number will not be accepted, so please remember to put the receipt number on each of your entries. Poems must be submitted in a word document, and if sending multiple entries be attached in individual documents. Entries after 31st July will not be entered into the competition.

If you have any questions please contact robertgraves@wimbledonbookfest.org