National Poetry Competition
History

The National Poetry Competition has been one of Britain's top single poem competitions since 1978. It is judged anonymously by a new set of judges each year. You can read the poems of all of the past winners and find out more information below.

2010: Paul Adrian, 'Robin In Flight'

2009: Helen Dunmore, 'The Malarkey'

2008: Christopher James, 'Farewell to the Earth'

2007: Sinéad Morrissey, 'Through the Square Window' 

2006: Mike Barlow, 'The Third Wife'

2005: Melanie Drane, 'The Year the Rice-Crop Failed'

2004: Jon Sait, 'Homeland'

2003: Colette Bryce, 'The Full Indian Rope Trick'

2002: Julia Copus, 'Breaking the Rule'

2001: Beatrice Garland, 'undressing'

2000: Ian Duhig, 'The Lammas Hireling'

1999: Simon Rae, 'Believed'

1998: Caroline Carver, 'horse underwater'

1997: Neil Rollinson, 'Constellations'

1996: Ruth Padel, 'Icicles Round a Tree in Dumfriesshire'

1995: James Harpur, 'The Frame of Furnace Light'

1994: David Hart, 'The Silkies'

1993: Sam Gardiner, 'Protestant Windows'

1992: Stephen Knight, 'The Mermaid Tank'

1991: Jo Shapcott, 'Phrase Book'; John Levett, 'A Shrunken Head'

1990: Nicky Rice, 'Room Service'

1989: William Scammell, 'A World Elsewhere'

1988: Martin Reed, 'The Widow's Dream'

1987: Ian Duhig, 'Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen'

1986: Carole Satyamurti, 'Between the Lines'

1985: Jo Shapcott, 'The Surrealists' Summer Convention Came to Our City'

1984: Tony Curtis, 'The Death of Richard Beattie-Seaman in Belgian Grand Prix, 1939'

1983: Carol Ann Duffy, 'Whoever She Was'

1982: Philip Gross, 'The Ice Factory'

1981: James Berry, 'Fantasy of an African Boy'

1980: Tony Harrison, 'Timer'

1978: Medbh McGuckian, 'The Flitting'

1978: Michael Hulse, 'Dole Queue'