Maya Poetry Book Awards 2026

The Poetry Book Awards is now open and accepting entries. The closing date for entries is Sunday, 31st May 2026. (However, the sooner you submit your book(s), the longer the judge(s) will have to consider them.)

So stop all the clocks to ensure your entry is submitted on time, and cut off the telephone to avoid distraction.

The winners (longlist) will be announced on 1st August 2026. (These dates may change, so it is always best to sign up for our newsletter.)

Winners will be announced on our website, and in the local and national press. We also send an email to everyone who has subscribed to our newsletter. All prizewinners will be contacted directly to receive their prize.

We have a pool of experienced judges and readers to call upon, including award-winning poets and well-respected authors. We do not use filter judges at the moment, but may have to incorporate this at a later date, depending on how many entries we receive.

The cost of each book entered is just £40. We are based in the United Kingdom and accept payments by card in all currencies. Discounts are available if sending more than one book. Then the cost is £35 per book, e.g. two books will be £70, three books will be £105 and so on.

If your book (or pamphlet) is available as a print copy, we can accept the physical copy. We do not accept e-books or digital copies.

No. Books can be published in any year as long as they are still in print.

Yes, as long as it didn't win a prize.

Only individual poets can enter. We can't accept anthologies at the moment. We will, however, "bend the rules" for co-authored books - just two writers, as we have had a few requests for this to be allowed.

We want to give well-deserved recognition to self-published authors and smaller presses. Big publishing houses probably don't need us to provide them with recognition. They can afford to pay the large entry fees (often several thousand pounds) to enter prestigious awards, but for most smaller presses in the world, having one of their poets win a prize such as ours will be a refreshing change. Only self-published poetry books and those published by small, truly independent presses are eligible to enter. Publishers that get huge grants from arts councils, universities, local government, books councils, arts quangos and other sponsorships are NOT considered independent (even though some like to say they are) so their books are not eligible.

Yes. Publishers and authors can enter several books if they wish, as long as each book is accompanied by an entry fee.

Most competitions will charge an entry fee unless they have millions of pounds to spend because they are a taxpayer-funded arts quango. Other awards may get financial backing or sponsorship from a major company or business. Unfortunately, we do not have that luxury, and like many contests, we are completely self-funded, and for the awards to function, we must charge an entry fee. We pay our costs out of our own pocket and/or from entry fees. Our costs are administrative, prize money, web design and maintenance, domain name and hosting, payment to our readers/judges, extensive marketing and advertising, not to mention our time. Having said that, to encourage small presses and individual self-publishers to enter, we still want to keep our fees as low as possible and not outprice entrants. A good example of how high fees can discriminate against smaller, independent writers would be WH Smiths, who request £25,000 for a book that is selected by the "Richard and Judy" book club (correct figures as of 2010). Another example is the Costa Book Awards, which used to require publishers to pay a £5,000 fee if a book is shortlisted (correct figures as of 2019). In the UK, it is common to charge anything from £5 to £20 to enter a single poem into a contest, so our entry fee is very low indeed, especially when comparing on a cost per poem basis. Many indie book awards charge £70 to £100 per book, so once again, we are starting as low as we possibly can. We increased the prize money dramatically (for 2026) but have kept the entry fee low. We will probably have to increase the fee next year though.

When mailing in copies of your books, please be sure to include the correct postage on the package. Incorrect postage could result in your package being returned to you, resulting in delayed processing time and possibly missing the entry deadline date. Also, please avoid sending book(s) shipments requesting a signature. Requesting signatures for proof of delivery can cause a delay in receiving and processing your books.

Yes! There are a particular number of lines from famous poems included on the pages of this site. Find them all and send us the titles of the poems they're from using our contact form. They need to be sent in the right order. What's the right order? That's the second part of the puzzle. We also need something a little extra from you. What's that? That's the final part of the puzzle! The first person to get it exactly right will receive a free copy of last year's glorious winner, "Taplash Meditations". If nobody gets it exactly right by the competition closing date, we'll award the prize to whoever got closest. No using AI! We'll be able to tell.