Enter the Stanza Poetry Competition via Submittable here.

The Poetry Society is very pleased to announce that the Stanza Poetry Competition for 2026 is now open, with Maya C. Popa in the judge’s seat.

The theme is ‘Wonder’, the same as that of National Poetry Day. All Poetry Society Members who are also members of a Stanza are eligible to enter two unpublished poems of up to forty lines. The competition closes at 11.59 pm BST on 30^th August 2026. Winners will be announced on National Poetry Day (1^st October 2026). The winning poet will receive a one-to-one poetry feedback session, a bag of poetry goodies, and their winning poem will be published in Poetry News and on The Poetry Society website. Runners-up and commended poets will be published on The Poetry Society website.

Stanzas are run by Poetry Society members and take a variety of forms. A lot meet locally, but a number gather online. Joining a Stanza is a great way to meet like-minded poetry lovers and to develop your own poetry communities. Visit the Stanza listings page to find your nearest group.

This year’s judge, Maya C. Popa, is the author of three poetry collections: If You Love That Lady (W.W. Norton, July 2026; Picador, 2027), Wound Is the Origin of Wonder (W.W. Norton, 2022; Picador, 2023), named one of The Guardian’s best books of poetry, and American Faith (Sarabande, 2019), winner of the North American Book Prize. Her poems and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, The Paris Review, and The Times Literary Supplement.

She holds a PhD on the role of wonder in poetry from Goldsmiths, University of London, an MSt from Oxford University, and an MFA from New York University. Popa is the Poetry Editor of Publishers Weekly and the founder of Conscious Writers Collective, a global online writing program for poets and prose writers. Her newsletter, Poetry Today, is among Substack’s leading literature publications and reaches more than 22,000 readers.