Young Romantics Poetry Prize 2025-26
The Young Romantics Poetry Prize is inviting 16-18 year olds to submit poems of up to 30 lines in length on the theme of either ‘dystopia’ or ‘utopia’. The theme was chosen to mark the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s The Last Man. Poems can be serious or comic, experimental or traditional, but the Judges advise not drifting too far from the theme.
The judges are Rupert Christiansen, Will Kemp and Professor Deryn Rees-Jones.
Winners receive £700 and two highly commended entrants will receive £300. Winning and highly commended poems will also be published in The Keats-Shelley Review and on the Keats-Shelley website.
The Young Romantics Poetry and Essay Prizes were initiated in 2015 by the Keats Shelley Memorial Association to encourage poets aged 16-18 to respond to the work of the Romantics.
