Entries to this year’s Allingham Poetry Competition will be judged by poet and publisher, Kate Newmann.
Kate has published five collections of poetry with a sixth, titled ‘Cockett’, to be published in 2025. Her most recent collection, Ask Me Next Saturday, was featured by the Irish Independent, and she is a current recipient of the Katherine and Patrick Kavanagh Trust Fellowship. In May 2025 she read at the Strokestown International Poetry Festival. She has been Poet Laureate for Ballycastle, County Antrim and is Co-Director of Summer Palace Press.
The winner of the competition will receive a €300 prize and will also be declared winner of the annual Francis Harvey Award. This Award was created in memory of Francis Harvey, the Donegal banker-poet whose writings have been compared to those of Norman MacCaig, RS Thomas, and the Japanese haiku master Bashō. His poem “Heron” was a prizewinner in the World Wildlife Fund Poetry Competition.
The Poetry Competition is currently open for entries, with a deadline of 28 September. First-, Second- and Third-Place winners will read their work at the Awards Ceremony on Saturday, 8 November, along with the winners of the Flash Fiction Competition. Full details and entry forms for both competitions are posted at https://www.allinghamfestival.com/fiction-poetry-competitions.