The Nemerov has, er, competition from this new UK one:
http://www.sonnetcompetition.com/index.html

Entries are invited from anywhere. Don Patterson is among the judges.

£1400 (min) First Prize (about US$2750)
Closing 31 October 2007
Entry fee £7 per sonnet, or £14 per three.
Online entry is possible.

Published work is OK as long as you’ve never received any kind of payment (fee or prize) for it.

They’re "looking for innovation more than imitation". "If it has 14 lines (however long or short each line may be), we will call it a sonnet." Let’s not get into an argument here about that ;) .



[This message has been edited by Henry Quince (edited February 01, 2007).]

Thanks Henry.


I think

Janet

I'm afraid I'm not in on the jokes. I don't understand the slights both Henry and Janet have made regarding this competition. Could you let an outsider in on the scorn?

Best,
Marcia

Thanks, Henry.

But no thanks.

£7 per sonnet!

That is nearly $20 AUS!

I can get a week's supply of flathead fillets for that!

Priorities.

But Mark, look at it as an investment. A $2750 prize is a pretty good return on your money !

Marcia,
It's the "Trust me--I'm a judge/doctor/whatever" aspect that prompted our mirth--not scorn.
Best,
Janet

But Wendy, for only $2 AUS I can invest in a state lottery which could win me $2,000,000.

This gamble (in what amounts to another lottery, really) of nearly ten times the outlay can only deliver a possible $2750.

Anyway, there is only one real competition for poetry - the time race.

Can we write a poem that can LAST - more than a decade, that is.

And a win in any other poetry competition can't guarantee that.

Ah, yes. A poem that lasts. Priceless.

You know, £7 really is expensive to enter a competition. In fact, it's the most expensive one I've ever seen in the UK. The two major UK poetry contests - the National and the Arvon - cost £5 and £6 respectively, and the first prize in each is £5000.

The Neverov contest (so I believe) attracts something like 3000 entries.

If the same sonnet-contest-folk enter this one, that would be 3000 x £7 = £21,000.

Take out the first prize of £1400 = £19,600.

A good little earner, it would seem.