Eligibility Criteria              

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Please read these Eligibility Criteria before submitting your work. 

Competition Eligibility Criteria

  1. The Disabled Poets Prize will accept entries from deaf and disabled poets aged 18+ currently living full-time in the UK. 

By deaf and/ or disabled poets we mean poets who have faced disablist and/or audist barriers in accessing their careers, and poets who consider themselves to be deaf or disabled. This includes: Deaf, deaf and hard-of-hearing people, blind and visually impaired people, people with mobility and energy-limiting impairments, chronic illnesses, mental health conditions or experience of mental distress, and/ or learning disabilities, neurodivergent people. We also include other people who have experienced barriers accessing the poetry world related to their experience as people living with chronic or long-term health conditions or impairments not otherwise discussed.

  1. The Prize particularly welcomes entries from deaf and disabled poets from the following communities:
    • Black, Asian, Global Majority; 
    • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQIA+); 
    • Working class or from a working-class upbringing;
    • Care experienced.
  1. Entries to the best single poem category must not have been published and/ or broadcast.  
  2. Entries to the best unpublished pamphlet category are for a debut pamphlet of new work.
  3. If you have previously published a pamphlet or collection, you are ineligible for this Prize category.
  4. If you are offered a publishing contract for a full length collection or pamphlet prior to the commencement of the programme (i.e. during the application and judging process), you are ineligible for this prize category. Please contact us to inform us and we will withdraw your entry.
  5. Judges, their close family members, employees or trustees of CRIPtic Arts, Spread the Word, Verve Poetry Press, Verve Poetry Festival, The Literary Consultancy, the Arvon Foundation and Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) are not eligible to apply. 

The Prize’s website is: disabledpoetsprize.org.uk 

If you are considering submitting an entry to the Prize, please make sure you have read the following documents, available on the Prize website in audio, BSL and Word document formats.

If you have a question about the Prize which is not answered through the Frequently Asked Questions, you can contact the Prize by email: [email protected]