The poetry playground awaits: enter our National Poetry Day writing competition... and WIN £50/€60
National Poetry Day is the biggest mass celebration of poetry in the UK. It’s a chance for all of us to share in the pleasure of poetry. Step into the poetry playground and let your creativity run wild...
Climb up a couplet,
Go round-about rhyme,
Or slide down a sonnet
One da-dum at a time…
Seek hidden haikus,
Swing a stanza around!
You write the rules
In the poem playground…
Thursday the 2nd of October is National Poetry Day – and this year’s theme is play!
To celebrate, we’re inviting you to enter the poetry playground and let your creativity run wild… for the chance to win a glorious £50/€60 personalised National Book Token featuring your poem. One runner-up will receive a £25/€30 gift card in our standard design.
Entries will be judged by the wonderful CLiPPA and Jhalak Prize-nominated poet (and Jhalak Poetry Prize 2026 judge) Nikita Gill.
Your writing prompt? Play! Please feel free to interpret this prompt in whatever way you wish. There are limitless ways to play and be playful, so let your imagination loose, and show us what poetry and play mean to you.
Competition rules, hints and tips:
- Poems must be no longer than 14 lines in length. All poetry is welcome, and there are no rules or restrictions around rhyme scheme, metre, genre or style, so long as your poem is no longer than 14 lines.
- A minimum of one poem and maximum of 10 poems can be submitted per entrant.
- Entrants must be aged 16 or over.
- Entrants can submit poems on behalf of those under the age of 16.
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We recommend saving poem(s) in a backed-up document before copying and pasting into the entry form, so you don't lose your work.
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Where possible, please indicate line breaks by using / (e.g. 'I think that I shall never see /A poem lovely as a tree').
- Entrants must submit their poems by midnight, Sunday 5th October 2025.
Looking for inspiration? This National Poetry Day, Hollie McNish joins us to recommend her favourite collections of poetry.
About our guest judge
Nikita Gill is an Irish-Indian poet, playwright, author and illustrator, whose mesmeric and lyrical debut novel Hekate has just hit bookshop shelves.
Read more about Hekate – a Sunday Times and a #1 New York Times bestseller – in our list of 40 brilliant books out in the second half of this year.
Nikita has published eight volumes of poetry and has been shortlisted twice for the CLiPPA (Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award) and the Jhalak Children's & YA Prize. She will return to the Jhalak Prize in 2026 as one of the fabulous judges for the Jhalak Poetry Prize.
Nikita is delighted to be an ambassador for National Poetry Day and the guest judge of our competition!
Gift cards
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