Sole Judge: Penelope Shuttle
who will read all entries
Closing date for entries. Midnight, 29th August 2026.
1st prize-£600. Runner-up- £300. 5 x commended-£50 each.
The Gloucestershire Prize- £200. (for Gloucestershire residents only).
Penelope Shuttle has lived in Falmouth since 1970. Her new collection, History of the Child, published in February 2026 by Bloodaxe Books, is a highly evocative exploration of childhood, memory, and imagination. The book blends personal and historical perspectives, guided by the idea of childhood as a transformative and rebellious space.
Her thirteenth collection, Lyonesse, appeared from Bloodaxe Books in June 2021, was Observer Poetry Book of the Month, and long listed for the Laurel Prize. It has been described as ‘...a singular, arresting and moving book’. Noah, a pamphlet, appeared in September 2023 from Broken Sleep Books. Shuttle is President of the Falmouth Poetry Group.
Entry fees: Postal entries; £4 per poem or 3 poems for £10.
Email entries will carry a surcharge for admin & printing costs. For postal entries, go to https://tinyurl.com/buzzwordspostalentry to download the entry form and instructions. Please download or print the form, do not type into it or it changes for everyone!
Proceeds of the competition will be used to fund ‘Buzzwords’, which is the longest running and most respected regular poetry gathering in Cheltenham.
Rules of Entry.
1. Poems should be no longer than 70 lines, not counting title or blank spaces.
2. No translations are accepted.
3. Poems must not have been previously published in print or on the internet.
4. Entries must be clearly typed on single side(s) of A4 paper in a clear font e.g. Arial 12 point. No curly or obscure fonts please. One poem per page.
5. Please leave a reasonable margin on the paper so that it is legible when printed and filed.
6. Handwritten entries will not be considered.
7. Entrants’ names should not appear on the poems. An entry form or email should accompany all entries and contain name, phone number, address, email address and titles of poems entered.
8. Entries must be received by midnight on 29th August
9. Entries for the Gloucestershire prize should mark their poems with ‘GL’ in the top right hand corner.
10. Gloucestershire, for the purposes of the competition, includes South Gloucestershire
11. Results will also be published on the Buzzwords Competition Website.
12. Prize winners will be contacted in October 2026; winners will be welcome to read their poems at the next ‘Buzzwords’
13. The judge’s decision will be final and we regret that no correspondence will be entered into.
14. Copyright will remain with the competitor, but Buzzwords reserves the right to publish the winning poems on the website, or to use them in publicity, for 12 months after the results are announced.
16. Poems may not be altered after entry.
Email entry instructions
Pay for the appropriate number of poems through the paypal button below. Once you click on the 'Pay Now' button, there will be a drop down for the number of poems, including discount for three poems. Please note, you do not have to have a paypal account and can use a debit card through paypal.
Send the poems, one per page, as an attachment to buzzwords.poetry@gmail.com . No name or identifying marks on the poems, except for ‘GL’ on the top right-hand corner if you are a Gloucestershire entrant.
In the body of the email, include the paypal receipt or transaction number, name, phone number, address, email address and titles of poems entered.
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Number of Poems
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<option value="one poem">
one poem £4.35 GBP
</option>
<option value="two poems">
two poems £8.70 GBP
</option>
<option value="three poems">
three poems £11.00 GBP
</option>
<option value="four poems">
four poems £15.35 GBP
</option>
<option value="five poems">
five poems £19.70 GBP
</option>
<option value="six poems">
six poems £22.00 GBP
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<tr>
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<option value="one poem">
one poem £4.35 GBP
</option>
<option value="two poems">
two poems £8.70 GBP
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<option value="three poems">
three poems £11.00 GBP
</option>
<option value="four poems">
four poems £15.35 GBP
</option>
<option value="five poems">
five poems £19.70 GBP
</option>
<option value="six poems">
six poems £22.00 GBP
</option>
</select>
</td>
</tr>
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<input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="GBP" />
<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_GB/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" title="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" alt="Buy Now" />
</form>
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick" /> <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="A32LA8GEWZW58" /> <table> <tr> <td> <input type="hidden" name="on0" value="Number of Poems"/> Number of Poems </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <select name="os0"> <option value="one poem"> one poem £4.35 GBP </option> <option value="two poems"> two poems £8.70 GBP </option> <option value="three poems"> three poems £11.00 GBP </option> <option value="four poems"> four poems £15.35 GBP </option> <option value="five poems"> five poems £19.70 GBP </option> <option value="six poems"> six poems £22.00 GBP </option> </select> </td> </tr> </table> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="GBP" /> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_GB/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" title="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" alt="Buy Now" /> </form>* Please note: to get the discount for 3 poems, you need to use the 'drop down' for number of poems, not the plus/minus.*
<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick" /> <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="A32LA8GEWZW58" /> <table> <tr> <td> <input type="hidden" name="on0" value="Number of Poems"/> Number of Poems </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <select name="os0"> <option value="one poem"> one poem £4.35 GBP </option> <option value="two poems"> two poems £8.70 GBP </option> <option value="three poems"> three poems £11.00 GBP </option> <option value="four poems"> four poems £15.35 GBP </option> <option value="five poems"> five poems £19.70 GBP </option> <option value="six poems"> six poems £22.00 GBP </option> </select> </td> </tr> </table> <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="GBP" /> <input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_GB/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" title="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!" alt="Buy Now" /> </form>
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