FAQs

What type of poems can be entered?

We welcome any style of poetry on any scientific topic, to a maximum of 40 lines.

Can I enter different types of poetry?

Each participant can only enter one poem in the contest.

What are the key dates?

Entries open March 21 - June 21, 2024.

Winners are announced November 10, 2024.

Who will be judging the competition?

Celebrated writer Dava Sobel will be selecting our winners. Read more here

Do I retain the rights of my creative work?

Copyright of each poem remains with the poet, but by entering the competition you give the organisers the right to publish your poem both online and in printed media.

Why no AI?

Whilst we appreciate the potential role that both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have to play in the future development of both science and poetry, the current opaqueness of many of these tools means that it is not possible to determine if somebody's else's work has been plagiarised. This means that even though AI and ML can indeed be used to create some pretty amazing poetry, in doing so we cannot possibly tell if this process has used somebody else's work without credit, which is both not cool and also legally pretty suscept. As such, for the time being, Brilliant Poetry does not accept any poems that have used AI or ML in any part of the poetry writing process.

Show me the money.

First prize: £1,000; Second prize: £500; Third prize: £250.