The go-to place for writers in Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire
Prize
£50 + anthology
Winners and runners-up will be invited to read their work at The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, date to be announced.
The winning poem will be included in the competition 2025 anthology, and the winning poet will receive a free 2025 anthology. They will be invited to read their poem at our event at The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival in October 2025, date to be announced. Winners aged under 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult — a parent, guardian or teacher.
Poetry (max 50 lines). Word/line numbers do not include titles, stanza breaks or epigrams.
To enter online, pay first, then email your entries
You don't need a Paypal account. Pay either by Paypal or card.
When you have paid:
Email competition@gloswriters.org.uk with:
DON'T FORGET to attach your entries, each in a separate document.
Kate Potts is a poet, creative writing lecturer, mentor and editor. Her new book Pretenders, a multi-vocal work exploring imposter feelings and 'imposter syndrome', will be published by Bloodaxe Books in March 2025. Her previous collection Feral (Bloodaxe 2018) was a Poetry Book Society recommendation and a Telegraph Poetry Book of the Month. Her poetry has been shortlisted for The Moth International Poetry Prize and commended in the Forward Prizes.
Kate teaches for Dialect Writers and The Poetry School. She taught creative writing for Middlesex University, Royal Holloway and Oxford University before moving to Gloucestershire in 2021. She lives in Stroud with her son.
Here are some ideas and exercises for you to try, either individually or in a group.
1. Mind mapping
Take a sheet of paper and write ‘Edges’ in the centre. Scribble around the subject all the different kinds of ideas, meanings, metaphors etc you can think of. For examples, look up spidergrams, mind maps etc.
2. Free writing
Start with the word ‘Edges’. Keep your pen steady and your hand moving! No matter what, don't stop, write whatever words, ideas you think of.
Don't overthink the subject – be free flowing.
Don't worry about spelling, punctuation or grammar.
Go back and circle the ideas you especially like.
3. Word and Image Association
Thumb through the dictionary and choose several words at random. Look at ways they might relate to what you’re writing.
Do the same with images – flip through a magazine and look at the pictures you find. Can they be related to your piece?
4. What if?
Ask of your characters:
What if s/he is from a different culture?
What if she is a he – and vice versa?
What if this was based abroad or by the coast/in town?
What if there was someone else involved?
What if they had much less or much more ...?
What if s/he didn’t do it?
5. Learn from past winners
Our Competition Winners Anthologies for 2017 – 2024 are on sale via the website – see here for the link
What did you enjoy about the poems and stories? What were the stand-out entries? What made them so readable or compelling?
Writing Tips
‘In the planning stage of a book, don't plan the ending. It has to be earned by all that will go before it.’ — Rose Tremain
‘Always carry a note-book. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.’ — Will Self
‘Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.’ — Zadie Smith
‘Read it aloud to yourself because that's the only way to be sure the rhythms of the sentences are OK (prose rhythms are too complex and subtle to be thought out — they can be got right only by ear).’ — Diana Athill
‘Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.’ — Anton Chekhov
‘Listen to the criticisms and preferences of your trusted 'first readers.' — Rose Tremain
‘The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you're allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it's definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly and tell it as best you can. I'm not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.’ — Neil Gaiman
‘The nearest I have to a rule is a Post-it on the wall in front of my desk saying “Faire et se taire” (Flaubert), which I translate for myself as ‘Shut up and get on with it.’ — Helen Simpson
‘The trick is to keep your reader believing in the characters and the story - even though both of you know it’s a work of fiction’ — Margaret Attwood
Happy Writing!
