Wordsmithery*

The Rosemary McLeish Poetry Prize

​​

The Prize is open for entries on the theme of 'River' from 20/06/26 - 12/09/26.
 

About Rosemary McLeish

Rosemary McLeish was a poet and artist who died from cancer in 2020. Her two collections of poetry I am a field and Defragmentation are published by Wordsmithery. The prize supports and promotes writers, which is something Rosemary was always very keen to do. 

​

Find out more about Rosemary on her website. ​​

​​

The prize fund has been generously funded by Rosemary's widower, Richard Cooper. 

​

You can purchase entry via PayPal on this page. 

​

Full terms and conditions.

​

General
1. The competition is open to UK-based poets.
2. The opening date of the competition is 20/06/26 - entries will not be accepted before this and will be deleted without reading. 
3. The closing date of the competition is midnight (UK time), 12/09/26.
4. You may submit as many poems as you like. All entries will be considered anonymously by the judges.
5. Entry is via this website, via PayPal. You do not need to have a PayPal account to enter. You can use your credit/debit card or the Guest Checkout option. Please keep a copy of your poems. 
6. Under no circumstances can alterations be made to poems once entered.
7. Entrants will receive confirmation by email within 48 hours, if you haven’t received acknowledgement within 48 hours, please check your spam folder. If there is still no acknowledgement, please email rmclprize@gmail.com
8. The competition organisers reserve the right to change the judging panel without notice and not to award prizes if, in the judges’ opinion, such an action is justified.
9. The judges will be a representative of Wordsmithery and an invited external judge.
10. The judges will read all the entries; their decision is final. Neither the judges nor Wordsmithery staff will enter into any correspondence.
11. No current employee, work experience student (or immediate family of) of Wordsmithery is eligible to enter the Prize.
12. Any queries, please email rmclprize@gmail.com
13. Entry is £4 for one poem, with additional poems at £3.
14. If you wish to enter more than 3 poems, you can do so via paypal.me/WordsmitheryKent with the appropriate fee. Make sure to put your name and titles of poems into the Notes section. 
 
Poems
1. All entries will be judged anonymously and the poet’s name must not appear on the poem itself.
Poems will be logged by a non-member of the judging team. 
2. All poems must have a title and must not exceed 50 lines in length (excluding title, dedication, intros/footnotes, or stanza breaks). Entries can be on any interpretation of the topic 'River'.
3. Poems must be in English.
4. Poems must be the entrant’s original work with no AI.
5. Entries must not have been published, self-published, published on a website or made public on social media, broadcast or featured among the winners in another competition.
6. No simultaneous submissions.
7. Poems should be submitted in a Word document as an attachment to rmclprize@gmail.com with the subject heading 'McLeish Prize'. Please note the Paypal receipt number and if the account is under another name, please mention that. 
 
 Long listed, short listed and winning entries
1. All entrants and longlisted poets will be notified by the end of September 2026.
2. Short listed poets will be selected from the longlist by the end of October 2026 and invited to an awards event as part of Medway River Lit in November 2026. All winners will be expected to provide a biography and photograph. There will be a travel bursary for winners to attend the event.  
3. The copyright of each poem remains with the author. However, authors of the long listed, short listed and winning poems, by entering the competition, grant Wordsmithery the right to publish their poem online and in print.

4. Wordsmithery will publish photos of the winners and the award ceremony on social media. 
 
Prizes:
1. The first prize is £600, plus a small piece of original artwork by Rosemary McLeish.
2. The second prize is £300
3. The third prize is £150
4. A number of commendations (no monetary prize) may be awarded at the discretion of the judging panel.

5. The prize will be awarded as a cheque, or if this is not suitable, as a direct bank transfer.

​​

​​