INDIGO FIRST COLLECTION COMPETITION 2024

Open to poets who have not had a full collection or pamphlet published

CLOSING DATE: 13th December 2024

TWO winners will have their debut collection published

and receive a royalty contract plus 25 free copies.

ENTER HERE

• Submissions (Online only): 15 poems on any subject to 40 lines max.

• Entry Fee: £20 per block of poems, £36 for two, £48 for three

COMPETITION GUIDELINES

1. Please send one poem per sheet and submission as one complete document (not separate poems). Poems must be your own work and not AI generated. 40 lines max from first line including stanza breaks.

2. Entries are judged anonymously so poems must not bear any identifying marks. Any poems with identifying marks will be disqualified.

3. Submitted poems may have been published online, in anthology or magazines. Entrants must not have had a collection or pamphlet published, including self-published.

4. Submissions: Email address competitions@indigodreams.co.uk ONLY for anonymity.

Please pay via PayPal before submitting. Subject heading Indigo First Collection Competition ONLY. Send one email with name, address, collection title and PayPal transaction number. Attach your submission including the collection title as continuous Word Document or Rich Text File only, no pdf or alternatives please. Please note we are unable to accept postal submissions for this competition.

5. Winning collections will be up to 52 pages in length and published late 2025.

6. More than one entry may be submitted provided it is accompanied by the correct entry fee.

7. All entries will be treated as copies and cannot be returned.

8. Copyright remains with the authors and by submitting to this competition you are agreeing to details of winners to be displayed on our website, social media and elsewhere.

Note: We use a continuous adjudication method so there is no benefit in delaying submission until last days of the competition.

RESULTS will be published here on our website by 31st JANUARY 2025.

Wishing everyone good luck and thank you for taking part in Indigo First.

INDIGO SPRING POETRY PRIZE 2024

RESULTS

PRIZES: 1st £250; 2nd £100; 3rd £50 plus magazine publication

OUR JUDGE

VIC PICKUP

Vic has won the Café Writers and Cupid’s Arrow Competitions, and been shortlisted for the National Poetry Day #speakyourtruth prize on YouTube. Vic’s debut pamphlet Lost & Found was released by Hedgehog Press in 2020 and her micro-pamphlet ‘What colour is my brain?’, co-written with Jules Whiting, came out in 2022. Currently working as a doctoral researcher in the Mills & Boon archives at Reading University, Vic also co-hosts Reading’s Poets’ Café and Poets’ Café Online. www.vicpickup.com

Her collection The Omniscient Tooth Fairy was published by Indigo Dreams in 2023.

Many thanks for entering this very popular competition. Huge congratulations to the winners and an enormous parcel of thanks to our splendid Judge, Vic Pickup.

28.6 _ Kevin MacAlan

Adder - Hilary Thompson

An injured jackdaw - Denni Turp

All of us who never got to say goodbye - Jennifer A. McGowan

Confiscating blue from the city - Deborah Finding

English fields - Jenny Mitchell

Golden Mole - Bex Hainsworth

Grandmother turns black & white as an alternative to death - Simon French

Heart - Denni Turp

Hollying - Alice Stainer

I unpick my town - Riff Poynton

I wish my parents were hoarders - Liz Dean

Joy in a side room - Susan Bell

Making Dolmades in Essex - Judith Wozniak

Nostos - Alice Stainer

Revelations - Kathy Miles

Sludge - Julie Stevens

The boyfriends - Michael Brown

The secrets of the quiet time - Julie Filimon

Terminology - Julie Filimon

THE SHORTLIST

THE LONGLIST

28.6 - Kevin MacAlan

Adder - Hilary Thompson

An injured jackdaw - Denni Turp

All of us who never got to say goodbye - Jennifer A. McGowan

Confiscating blue from the city - Deborah Finding

The Boyfriends - Michael Brown

Terminology - Julie Filimon

1st PLACE

2nd PLACE

3rd PLACE

Confiscating blue from the city by Deborah Finding

Terminology by Julie Filimon

The Boyfriends by Michael Brown

JUDGES COMMENTS & WINNING POEMS

INDIGO FIRST COLLECTION COMPETITION 2023

Thank you to everyone for taking part in the competition. The standard of writing filled us both with huge optimism for the future of poetry. All those mentioned had the potential to be fine collections, worthy of being given a wider audience. Please feel encouraged by this, even if you weren't one of our winners.

More competition opportunities will be coming up soon!

ONEIRONAUT by Leah Larwood

FRAGILE ISLANDS by Christine Hollywood

THE WINNERS