Money for poems:
Quadrant pays
Poetry Review pays
The Spectator pays
The TLS pays (never had anything there till I came second in the competition).
Various other magazines slip twenty quid in your envelope.
There are poetry competitions. I enter most of them. Haven't won much lately but I have won between £500 and £1000 about five times and other prizes say about twenty times.
The Spectator competitions - won about a dozen £25 though none lately it's true
Won £25 at The Oldie once - The Oldie is actually quite a good magazine
Won £25 at New Statesman once
I think the reason quite a lot of British magazines pay is because they get grants from the Arts Council. Not so much now because all the money's gone to the Olympic Games, curse them.
Sometimes poets are paid to write a poem. That's happned to me sometimes (the BBC)and it happens to Wendy Cope a lot and Carol Ann Duffy a lot Sophie Hannah quite a lot. All women - I wonder why that is.
You couldn't LIVE on this but it's nice, don't you think. Of course you have to be a light verse person or else Andrew Motion to do at all well.
[This message has been edited by John Whitworth (edited August 02, 2008).]
|