The Guernsey International Poetry Competition 2027 launched on 1st September, with award-winning poet, novelist and playwright Clare Pollard announced as this year’s judge.
Organised by the Guernsey Literary Festival, the competition is now in its 15th year and attracts everyone from first-time writers to established poets from around the world.
With no set theme, entrants are invited to submit original poems of no more than 14 lines across three categories: Open Poetry, Channel Islands Poetry and Young People’s Poetry.
Alongside cash prizes, the winning poems will be brought to life through the Poems on the Move exhibition. The three prize winners in each category will have their work displayed on Guernsey’s buses, with a further nine finalist poems exhibited at Guernsey Airport and an additional 12 poems showcased at public locations across the island, including Guernsey Harbour.
Judge Clare Pollard (pictured) is an award-winning poet, novelist and playwright based in London. She published her first poetry collection, The Heavy-Petting Zoo, at the age of 19 and has since published six collections with Bloodaxe Books, most recently Lives of the Female Poets. Clare’s play The Weather premiered at the Royal Court Theatre. She has translated numerous works, including Ovid’s Heroines and The Sea-Migrations by Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf, which received a PEN Translates Award. Clare is Poetry Editor of The Idler and former editor of Modern Poetry in Translation. Her acclaimed novel Delphi was followed by The Modern Fairies, winner of the 2025 Tadeusz Bradecki Prize. Her children’s novel, The Othernauts, was published by Bonnier in June 2026, with a second edition scheduled for publication in February 2027. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Clare Pollard said: “I’m delighted to be judging the Guernsey International Poetry Competition, and particularly love how winning poems will be displayed in public spaces, from buses to the airport.
“I will be looking for poems that surprise and delight; that make the reader see the world anew.”
Supporting Clare in the judging process will be filter judge Jonathan Edwards, who is the author of My Family and Other Superheroes (Seren, 2014), which received the Costa Poetry Award and the Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice Award. It was shortlisted for the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. His second collection, Gen (Seren, 2018), also received the Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice Award, and in 2019 his poem about Newport Bridge was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. His third collection, Talk of the Town, will be published in October 2026.
Competition organiser Livia Blücher said: “It’s wonderful to welcome a fresh new batch of poems to our island every year. Each judge brings a slightly different perspective to the poetry they choose, so if you’ve kept some poems in a folder somewhere, do submit them. Who knows, 2027 may turn out to be your year.”
The Guernsey International Poetry Competition is supported by Guernsey Arts, Guernsey Ports and U&Us.
Head of Arts Development at Guernsey Arts, Rebecca Booth, said: “Guernsey Arts is delighted to again be supporting the Guernsey Literary Festival to deliver the Guernsey International Poetry Competition. We see this as an important element of the festival, providing a platform for emerging poets to develop their creativity and for islanders to be inspired to get involved.”
