The Manchester Poetry Prize

Now here's a competition worth winning. Also you can enter online. You must enter three to five poems whose total maximum length is no more than 120 lines. So you can enter that 100 line epic, so long as you can find two ten line poems to add to it.

The Manchester Poetry Prize 2010
First prize: £10,000. Deadline for entries: 6th August 2010 Entry fee: £15

Judges: Simon Armitage, Lavinia Greenlaw and Daljit Nagra

Under the direction of Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University is launching the second Manchester Poetry Prize – a major international literary competition celebrating excellence in creative writing.

The Manchester Poetry Prize is open internationally and will award a cash prize of £10,000 to the writer of the best portfolio of poetry submitted. The competition is open to entrants aged 16 or over; there is no upper age limit.

In addition to the main prize, a bursary for study at MMU will be awarded to one entrant aged 18-25 as part of the Manchester Young Writer of the Year Award.

All entrants are asked to submit a portfolio of three to five poems (total maximum length 120 lines). The poems can be on any subject, and written in any style, but must be new work, not published or submitted for consideration elsewhere.

The prizes will be awarded at a gala dinner hosted at Manchester Metropolitan University as part of the 2010 Manchester Literature Festival. Tickets for this event will be on sale soon.

To find out more about the Manchester Poetry Prize, and enter online, go to: www.manchesterwritingcompetition.co.uk

There is also a Manchester Fiction Prize - details on the website.

Alex Ferguson received an honorary degree from Manchester Metropolitan University.