Record prizes on offer as Tower Poetry competition blasts off for new heights

2023: THE PLANETS

This year, the Christopher Tower Poetry Prize, the most prestigious awards for young poets in the UK, announced a newly increased first prize of £5,000, and a full set of awards worth more than £14,000.

The poet who writes the best single poem on the theme of ‘The Planets’ receives a new first prize of £5,000. There will be a second prize of £3,000, and a third prize of £1,500. Along with these, there will be ten runners-up, who will each receive £500.

This makes the Christopher Tower competition by far the most lucrative prize for young British poets.

As well as all this, the top three prize winners will be given places at the Christopher Tower Summer School, where young poets work closely in Oxford alongside distinguished writers.

The competition is completely free to enter, and all British and Northern Irish 16-18-year-olds in full- or part-time education are eligible to take part.

This year’s judges are the poets Julia Copus and Gail McConnell, along with Tower Poetry’s Peter McDonald. The winners will receive their prizes in Oxford in April.

The Christopher Tower Poetry Prizes have given over £110,000 to 16 to 18-year-olds and their schools since 2000. This year, it is time to defy gravity and take off – there is even more to be won.