The 2026 Oxford Poetry Prize — Fellowship

The Oxford Poetry Prize is an annual competition for one previously unpublished poem written in English. It is run by Oxford Poetry, founded in 1910 and the oldest dedicated poetry magazine in the UK, published in Oxford by Partus Press. A different guest judge reads each edition; the 2026 judge is Rowan Ricardo Phillips, poetry editor of The New Republic and editor of the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets. Entries are read blind, so the judge sees no author names during selection. Three winners share £3,500 and are offered publication in the print magazine. Entry, judging and results all happen online, so no travel or residency is involved.

Benefits & funding

First prize: £2,000.
Runner-up: £1,000.
Second runner-up: £500.
Winners are offered publication in the print edition of Oxford Poetry.
The first-prize poem is held exclusively by the magazine for four months, after which the rights revert to the poet, who may republish it with an acknowledgement.
A shortlist is announced publicly before the winners; the 2023 shortlist named 16 poets and the 2024 shortlist 13.
Cost to enter: £10 per poem. A limited set of free entries for low-income writers was released first come, first served for 2026 and has already been claimed.

Eligibility

Writers aged 18 or over on the date they submit.
Open to writers living anywhere in the world; no nationality or residency restriction.
The poem must be the entrant’s own original work in English; a self-translation into English is accepted.
The poem must not have been published anywhere before, in print or online.
The poem must not have been generated, in whole or in part, by a chatbot or other artificial intelligence.
Maximum 60 lines per poem. Blank lines, titles, subtitles, dedications and epigraphs do not count towards the limit.
There is no cap on how many poems one person may enter; each entry carries its own fee.
Former editors of the magazine, the current senior editorial team and their immediate families are barred, as are the guest judge’s family members and his current or former students.

Can you apply?

Worth a closer look

Age requirement
≥ 18 yrs
Not in your profile yet

We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.

Application process

1
Choose a single unpublished poem in English of no more than 60 lines.
2
Save each poem as its own PDF file, with no name or identifying detail anywhere in the document, because judging is blind.
3
Upload the file through the Oxford Poetry page on Submittable, the only accepted route.
4
Pay the £10 fee for each poem entered.
5
Submit before midnight UTC on 31 August 2026 and wait for the result, which the magazine communicates by the end of October 2026.

Program timeline

Submissions open.
1 May 2026
Deadline, midnight UTC.
31 August 2026
Shortlist and winners announced, entrants notified.
End of October 2026
After the results
winning poems are offered publication in a forthcoming print issue.