Submissions are open until 23:59 31st January 2025 (GMT)
1st prize £400
2nd prize £75
3rd prize £25
Our judge, Sheila E. Murphy, will also select up to 12 additional entries to be published alongside the prize-winners in a special issue of The Passionfruit Review.
Results will be announced by the end of February.
About the theme:
For this poetry contest, we are calling for poems that engage with experiences of love and loss.
Love and loss go hand in hand: nothing lasts forever, and to love anything – or anyone – is to know that love will be lost one day. Countless poets have grappled with these themes throughout history. We want your take on poems that deal with love or loss (or both).
As always, we are open to broad interpretations of the theme: feel free to surprise us and to stretch our imagination!
A note from the judge:
‘We are eager to see your poetry inspired by one of the most profound of human experiences. We await with gratitude what you share with us.’
ABOUT THE JUDGE:
Sheila E. Murphy’s Escritoire will appear from Lavender Ink in 2025. Her most recent books are Permission to Relax (BlazeVOX, 2023), October Sequence: Sections 1-51 (mOnocle-Lash Anti-Press, 2023), Sostenuto (Luna Bisonte Prods (2023) and Golden Milk (Luna Bisonte Prods, 2020). She won the Gertrude Stein award for her book Letters to Unfinished J. Reporting Live From You Know Where won the Hay(na)ku Book Prize from Meritage Press. Murphy has authored 45 books of poetry.
You can find some of her poetry in Issue 3 and Issue 9 of The Passionfruit Review, or check out her Wikipedia page.
Submission Guidelines
- The entry fee is £3 per poem, or £5 for 3. If the fee prevents you from entering the contest, get in touch with us at editor@passionfruitreview.com
- Submissions are open to all poets writing in English.
- Poems must be previously unpublished.
- Strong language is fine – abusive or discriminatory language is not.
- Simultaneous submissions are welcome – just let us know promptly through the submissions manager if you need to withdraw any of your poems.
- Poems up to 40 lines will be considered (we consider longer poems as general submissions!)
- Poets whose work is known by or recognisable to the judge will be disqualified.
