We welcome entries from everyone, irrespective of colour or hue, and wherever in the world your experience of racism occurred. Get writing today… You could win a prize and/or have your poem published in our new book, to help drive change.
Competition Rules
- Poems must be in English.
- All poems must be the unpublished work of the person entering them into the competition.
- The given name of the entrant must be provided, even if the poem is to be published under a pen name.
- Poems should not have any indication within them to allow for the identification of the poet.
- There are no length or content restrictions – a short poem is just as likely to win as a longer one.
- Make sure you state the category you are entering for each poem.
- Entries received after the stated closing date will be discarded.
- Poems will not be accepted by post.
- We cannot accept alterations to any poems once they have been submitted.
- Poems cannot be withdrawn from the judging process once they have been entered.
- In exceptional circumstances, we reserve the right to vary the prizes shown.
- Although copyright will remain with the poet, we reserve the right to publish any shortlisted poem on our website. Winning and highly commended poems will be published in a new Black in White poetry book.
- The judges’ decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
How to Enter
- Go to the Entry Form here.
- Pay £2 per poem and obtain an Entry Number (under 18s enter free).
- A unique Entry Number will be sent on completion of payment.
- Submit your poem using the link provided in the email that we will send you.
Entry Form →
£2 for each entry (under 18 free)
Judging and prizes
Working with a panel of judges, we follow a rigorous judging process every year. The judges review all the entries anonymously. Judging involves a detailed initial sift of all the poems we receive, followed by first-round scoring by each judge against six criteria:
- beauty, power, education or entertainment
- technical excellence
- form and flow
- choice of words and readability
- overall impact
- polish and expertise
The scores are summarised, and the poems are listed in order of their total scores. The judges then review and discuss this allocation to ensure that we are happy with the winning and highly commended selections and that all the poems exemplify the competition’s objectives. We award three prizes per category and around 25 highly commended poems.
How it started
After the release of Charlotte’s book of poems, Black in White, in November 2020, and its official launch in May 2021, we decided to run a poetry competition to give others an opportunity to share their experiences of racism in their own voices. The first Black in White Poetry Competition was open for entries for about seven weeks in the summer of 2021. The four judges selected three winners and 25 highly commended entries.
We announced the results on this website and on our social media channels in September 2021, and two months later, launched an anthology entitled Black in White Community Collection. This included the 28 selected entries, as well as several poems by five guest poets and Charlotte. This collection was rebranded as Foreign Body in 2023.
We said we would run a bigger and better competition in 2022 – and we did. We expanded the entry categories to two, calling for experiences of racism not just in the workplace but also in childhood. We launched the resulting book, Black in White Community Collection Volume 2, during the UK’s Black History Month celebration in October 2022. This collection was rebranded as Here is Your Heart in 2023. New poetry anthologies are now launched every year following the competition.