The Poetry Book Awards is an annual, international book award given to the best poetry books produced by indie writers, self-published authors or books published by small, truly independent presses. We are proud to be a Welsh-based, international contest open to all indie poets globally.
Background
Even though more and more people enjoy and participate in creative writing, it is becoming increasingly difficult to become traditionally published, especially in poetry. Most of the top book prizes and competitions do not allow self-published authors to enter. If they are allowed, then many are extremely expensive, leaving truly independent publishers, self-publishers and indie authors struggling to find the recognition they deserve. Instead of asking for huge sums of money from those shortlisted, we charge an entry fee for each entry.
More
After twenty years of finding and promoting outstanding poets through the International Welsh Poetry Competition, we now aim to bring further recognition to those writers who have produced a book-length collection of their work and hope to heighten a poet’s profile by offering this new award.
In our first few years, we have already had poets from Australia, Canada, Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Mauritius, Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, UAE, USA & Wales! The Poetry Book Awards are therefore a truly international competition, accessible to all (through the English language).
Funding
We should remind you that the awards are funded purely by the organisers & entrants and we receive no grants, bursaries or funding from the Arts Council of Wales, Literature Wales, the Welsh Books Council or any other external agencies.
However, we must say a big thank you to Michael Schmidt OBE, FRSL, founder of Carcanet Press and editor of PN Review, who was very supportive when we first set up this competition.
If any libraries, writing groups, small presses, Facebook groups, indie authors, Twitter followers, schools, universities, self-published poets, arts organisations, independent publishers, poetry workshops, bookshops, art galleries, councils, etc. would like more information, please let us know. You can email us or write to us at the usual address.
Thank you
Dave Lewis
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