Line limit: 40
Closing date: 30th November (midnight)
Entry fee: €7 per poem or €30 for a batch of five

The competition is open to original, unpublished and unbroadcast poems in the English language of 40 lines or fewer. The poem can be on any subject, in any style, by a writer of any nationality, living anywhere in the world. Translated work is not in the scope of this competition. Once entered, no alterations can be made to the submission. Simultaneous submissions are accepted but please notify us immediately should your work be accepted elsewhere.

Prizes

1st Prize

• €2,000
• Featured reading at the Cork International Poetry Festival (with four-night hotel stay and full board)
• Featured on the Southword Poetry Podcast
• Publication in Southword

2nd Prize

• €500
• Publication in Southword

3rd prize

• €250
• Publication in Southword

ten Runners-Up

• €50
• Publication in Southword

Judge

Suji Kwock Kim

Suji Kwock Kim is author of NOTES FROM THE DIVIDED COUNTRY, which received the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Whiting Writers’ Award, Bay Area Book Reviewers Award, and was shortlisted for the Griffin Prize; PRIVATE PROPERTY, a multimedia play performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and NOTES FROM THE NORTH, which received the International Book & Pamphlet Award (UK). Selections from DISORIENT, her forthcoming collection, have received the O’Donoghue Prize, as well as awards from POETRY LONDON, WELL REVIEW, and Poetry Society of America. She is 2022 Poet-in-Residence at the Wordsworth Trust.

Submission Details

Email entry

Send to: godcomp@munsterlit.ie
Subject: GOD entry

Attach the poem(s) for submission, with each poem attached separately (Word or other text document(s) – we cannot accept PDFs). Please use the title of the poem (or the first few words of the title) as the title of each document. As the competition is judged anonymously, we request that you do not write your name or personal details anywhere on this document.

Attach the cover letter (separate text document attached to the same email, not in the body of the email). The cover letter should include:

• Your name
• Poem title(s)
• Email address
• Phone number
• Postal address
• Image of PayPal receipt or the PayPal transaction ID number
• How your heard about the competition
• A brief bio (optional)

Payment of the entry fee can be made through PayPal. PayPal will deduct the fee in your own currency.

Postal Entry

• Poem(s) for submission (typed). To ensure anonymity, please do not write your name or any other personal details on the page. Each poem should be printed on a separate page with no back to back printing.
• Cover letter: see required details above. Cover letter should be on a separate page to ensure anonymity.
• Payment: If you have paid through PayPal, just quote the PayPal transaction ID. Alternatively, we accept cheques or bank drafts payable to the “Munster Literature Centre” in Euro, U.S Dollars or Pounds Sterling at a rate of €7 EUR per poem (or €30 EUR for a batch of five), $7 USD per poem (or $30 USD for a batch of five), or £6 GBP per poem (or £25 GBP for a batch of five). We also accept postal orders from the Republic of Ireland only. Please note that we cannot accept cash payment or Western Union money orders.
• Send to:
  Gregory O’Donoghue Competition,
  The Munster Literature Centre,
  84 Douglas Street,
  Cork, T12 X802
  Ireland
• Please do not send entries by registered post. Unfortunately, we are less likely to receive entries sent by registered post and your submission may be ineligible due to the delay incurred.
• If you would like us to send you confirmation of your postal entry, please include a self-addressed stamped postcard or envelope (if posted within Ireland). We can confirm the receipt of international entries via email.

Fees-Free entry

In a social justice initiative, the Munster Literature Centre is offering free entries of two poems each for thirty poets currently residing in a developing country (Africa, Central and South America, South East Asia, the Philippines, in the main) who do not have the financial means to pay the entrance fee for this year’s Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition. The places are offered on a trust basis. If you can afford the fee, we implore you not to use this facility as you will be depriving someone who really needs it. Only one free entry of two poems per person is allowed. Anyone who submits more than one free entry of two poems will have all their entries disqualified.

A Submittable portal will appear here during the competition submission window. Entries will not be accepted by other means outside of this time. The portal will close automatically when 30 entries have been received. Prepare in advance the following information, ready to input into an online form (copy and paste) as soon as the portal opens on 1^st September (12 p.m. midday Irish Standard Time).

• Your name
• Titles of your poems (maximum of two)
• Your complete postal address
• Your email address
• Your complete phone number (including country code)

You will need to upload two documents:

• Cover letter containing a bio note and the same information listed above
• Your poems, maximum of two, each with a maximum of 40 lines in Word or other text documents – we cannot accept PDFs. Please use the title of the poem (or the first few words of the title) as the title of each document. As the competition is judged anonymously, we request that you do not write your name or personal details anywhere on this document.

No changes to entries can be made after they have been submitted. The Submittable portal is for fees-free entries only.

More about the competition

The Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition was first held in 2010. It is a poetry prize for a single poem, open to writers from around the world from September to November annually. Sponsored by the Munster Literature Centre, the prize is named in honour of the late Irish poet long associated with the Centre.

Due to the large volume of entries, the judge will not be able to notify the authors of non-winning entries or give individual feedback. A shortlist will be posted on our website homepage by late February / early March, with winners and runners-up contacted contacted before the public announcement. We recommend following us on social media or signing up for our newsletter to stay up to date with all competition developments directly:

The Munster Literature Centre is a not-for-profit organisation; all money raised from the competition benefits writers and writing.

Previous Winners

Year	Accolade	Author	Title	Southword
2023	1st Prize	Jenny Mitchell	When Our Mother Dies	Issue 44 (preorder)
	2nd Prize	Yesol Kim	Burying Grandfather
	3rd Prize	Never	Judith H. Montgomery
2022	1st Prize	Timothy McBride	The Last Kodak Moment	Issue 42
	2nd Prize	James Finnegan	Operating Room
	3rd Prize	Seán Hickey	Ruritanian Episode: A Fable of Sorts
2021	1st Prize	Nicholas Hogg	Concerto	Issue 40
	2nd Prize	Damen O’Brien	A Smallholding
	3rd Prize	Gerry Boland	The Dog, The Accordion and The Stars
2020	1st Prize	Jennifer Saunders	Crosswalk	Issue 38
	2nd Prize	Chris Burke	The mighty salmon
	3rd Prize	Jed Myers	Lastness
2019	1st Prize	Shangyang Fang	Argument of Situations	Issue 36
	2nd Prize	Ron Carey	László Kovács and His Sons Cross the Border
	3rd Prize	Chloe Wilson	At the Torturers’ Convention
2018	1st Prize	Robert Lipton	Official Story	Issue 34 (online)
	2nd Prize	Majella Kelly	Portrait of the City with Mastectomy
	3rd Prize	Kim Addonizio	Black Hour Blues
2017	1st Prize	Mark Wagenaar	Late Song	Issue 31A (online)
	2nd Prize	Alan Garvey	Tara’s Thong
	3rd Prize	Suzanne Cleary	I Have Never Slept with an Animal
2016	1st Prize	Leila Chatti	After Another Attempt at Eighteen	Issue 29A (online)
	2nd Prize	Michael Derrick Hudson	The Invisible Man’s Blind Date
	3rd Prize	James O’Sullivan	Different Kinds of Life
2015	1st Prize	Breda Wall-Ryan	Self Portrait in the Convex Bulge of a Hare’s Eye	Issue 27A (online)
	2nd Prize	Caitlin Cowan	Love Meter
	3rd Prize	Jane Satterfield	Radio Clash
2014	1st Prize	Maya C. Popa	Hummingbird	Issue 25A (online)
	2nd Prize	Paula Cunningham	The Weather in the Mournes
	3rd Prize	Matthew Sweeney	Benito
2013	1st Prize	Judith Barrington	The Conversation	Issue 23A (online)
	2nd Prize	Gerry Boland	in the space between
	3rd Prize	Maya C. Popa	Sashimi
2012	1st Prize	Suji Kwock Kim	Sonogram Song	Issue 21A (online)
	2nd Prize	Alinda Wasner	Ode to the Night and the Morning Following an All-Day of Arguing
	3rd Prize	Tom Moore	Meteorites
2011	1st Prize	Sandra Ann Winters	Death of Alaska	Issue 19A (online)
	2nd Prize	Tadhg Russell	Superstition
	3rd Prize	Mike Casey	Bulloch Harbour, Winter 09
2010	1st Prize	John F. Deane	Shoemaker	Issue 17A (online)
	2nd Prize	Siobhan Campbell	Clew Bay from the Reek
	3rd Prize	Patrick Deeley	Geezer