top of page

McLellan Poetry Prize
 
2025 Competition 

Welcome to the 2025 McLellan Poetry Competition. The simplest way of entering the competition is to submit your poem(s) and fee online from this page.  

 

Alternatively, you may submit your entry by post. Please click the pink button for a postal entry form that you should print to accompany your poem(s).

​

Please review the Competition Rules at the foot of this page before submitting your poem(s). 

​

The closing date for this year's competition is midnight, Sunday 15th June 2025.

2025 Competition Rules

​

  • The competition is open to anyone except members of the McLellan Festival team. You may enter any number of poems and on any subject.

  • Poems should be of no more than 80 lines (excluding title), in English or Scots and your own original work (no translations).

  • Poems must not have won a prize in any other competition or have been published, self-published or accepted for publication in print or online at the time of the closing date. Entrants must notify the organisers promptly of any change in circumstances that occurs after the date of entry.

  • Each poem should be on a separate sheet in black Times New Roman size 12 font and in A4 format (one side only). Poems will be judged anonymously and must NOT include the poet’s name or any other distinguishing mark.

  • No alterations may be made once an entry has been received, nor fees refunded.

  • The entry fee is £6 for the first per poem and £5 each for subsequent poem submitted on the same form.

  • If payment has not been made already online, please send cheque (in sterling) from a UK bank made out to Arran Theatre and Arts Trust Ltd. 

  • Copyright remains with the author but Arran Theatre and Arts Trust reserves the right to publish winning and shortlisted poems for 2 years from the date the results are announced.

  • The judge’s decision is final. Neither he nor the organisers will enter into any correspondence. Entry implies acceptance of all the rules and failure to comply will result in disqualification.

  • Prize-winners will be notified individually before the end of July and invited to read at the award ceremony with Jim Carruth on the Isle of Arran on Friday, 29th August 2025. Electronic copies of the winning poems with biographies and photos will be required from the winners. The results of the competition with copies of the poems will be published on the festival website as soon as possible after the award ceremonies.

  • The competition organisers reserve the right to change the judge if necessary and not to award prizes if, in the judge’s opinion, such action is justified.

bottom of page