The deadline for entries to this year’s York Poetry Prize has been extended for a week.
The original deadline was midnight tonight (13 April), but the organisers have agreed to extend the entry period until midnight on Sunday, 19 April.
The competition has already attracted a record number of entries. More than 300 poets have submitted a total of more than 700 poems so far – and the entries are still pouring in today.
In just eight years, the competition, organised by YorkMix, in association with the York Literature Festival, has become one of the country’s top poetry competitions.
Competition organiser David Nicholson said: “The lockdown appears to have given writers much more time to work on their poems, and we have experienced a surge of entries in the last few days.
“As a result there have been a handful of technical issues, and we wanted to ensure that everyone who would like to enter is able to do so.
“Also, as we have cancelled our awards event due to the coronavirus lockdown, we no longer need to allow any winners time to make travel plans to come to York. So we have a little more leeway on our deadline.”
Although we won’t be holding an awards event, we will be publishing a longlist and later, a shortlist of poems selected by Sean O’Brien, our judge.
The overall winner will receive the top prize of £600. Enter here.