Interwoven: Poetry Celebrating Connectedness
Following the success of the New Beginnings project in 2021, the Spectrum project in 2022, the Kinship project in 2023 and Building Bridges in 2024, the Interwoven project seeks to continue celebrating identity and community through poetry. We want the resulting anthology – scheduled for November – to be an celebration of that which unites us – the people, places and forces which have in our power to use for good.
Genocide. Climate collapse. Culture Wars. Physical War. The global picture in these Roaring Twenties can leave little to inspire and uplift, and rhetoric is rife aiming to stoke fires of hate and distrust. But poetry – like many art forms, but perhaps more so than any other – is universal, and has real power to unite.
Raising voices from around the globe as one, from across continents and myriad walks of life, Interwoven is a celebration of that which unites us – the people, places and forces which have in our power to use for good. Woven into these pages is a celebration of the rich tapestry of humanity – a lyrical teasing-out of threads that unite us. These are poems to pick up in anger, in distrust, in confusion – and an anthology that will show you the good all around you.
Details
Competition opened on Tuesday 10th June 2025; closed on Sunday 13th July 2025. Update: we’re delighted to say we received 683 entries this year, and the judges have now begun the difficult task of whittling down the list and choosing the longlist.
Longlist announced 2nd September 2025
Shortlist announced 8th October 2025
Winners announced at a virtual launch in November 2025
Entry cost: free
Open to: anyone, anywhere, any age. We’re particularly keen to hear from those who do not feel the aspect of community/ies they’re writing about to be represented in traditional or mainstream media. Rules →
Poetry length: up to 100 lines or 750 words (whichever is lower), only one (previously unpublished) poem per applicant.
1st prize: £200
2nd prize: £100
Special mentions at the judges’ discretion.
All of the poems on the shortlist will be published in a volume, everyone included will receive a copy of the book, and will be invited to take place in an online launch event.
Meet the Judges
Photo © Jo Cotterill
Miriam Halahmy
Miriam was a teacher for 25 years, and, having worked with refugees and asylum seekers in schools, her writing engages with historical and contemporary issues that affect children across time – most notably the plight of refugees. Her young-adult novel, Hidden, was a Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and has been adapted for the stage. Saving Hanno, Miriam’s new book, is about a boy who comes on the Kindertransport and reflects on the grief and loss experienced by refugee children.
Photo © Tom Denbigh
Tom Denbigh
Tom Denbigh lives in Bristol with an obscene number of books. He is the first Bristol Pride Poet Laureate and a BBC 1Extra Emerging Artist Talent Search winner. He has performed at the Royal Albert Hall and festivals around the UK, and has brought poetry to Brighton and London Prides. He is a producer at Milk Poetry and has facilitated writing workshops for groups of students from the UK and abroad (he is particularly proud of his work with queer young people). His debut collection …and then she ate him is out now with Burning Eye Books.
Photo © Suman Gujral
Suman Gujral
Suman Gujral is a multidisciplinary artist working with print, textile and poetry. In 2024, she founded Third Space, a platform for South Asian poets, and she is literary lead for South Asian Heritage Month. Suman’s history as a child of refugees and immigrants underlies her practice. Her parents were forcibly displaced by the 1947 Partition of India, and came to the UK eighteen years later. It was during her MA that she came to understand the ongoing impact of Partition on them and millions of others.
Photo © Matt Dady-Leonard
Will Dady
Will Dady grew up in the wonderfully named Great Snoring in North Norfolk, and now lives in London. He is the Publisher at Renard Press, which he founded in 2020, and the founder of the Indie Press Network. An award-winning, climate-positive publisher, Renard’s raison d’être is to ‘publish beyond the mainstream’: providing a platform for stories and voices that have traditionally been marginalised. The New Beginnings project was set up in 2021 as an antidote to the less pleasant aspects of the pandemic, and its huge success in attracting stirring entries has made these projects a firm fixture in Renard’s publishing programme.
Support the Project
If, like us, you think this is a really important project, we’d love your help! Please do help us to get the word out – on social media (#InterwovenPoetry) and in real life, as we’d love to reach people who aren’t on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter (X), too!
This project is going to need money to get off the ground. If you’re able to, please pre-order the anthology or consider becoming a sponsor of the project – in return we’ll add your name to a special ‘thanks’ page in the book, and you can choose your level of support and receive various perks, including tote bags, paper/e/hardback editions and more. Sponsor →
If you know someone who would be interested in the project, please share this page with them! Click here to email them →
Sponsor the Project
Enter
Entry is via this Google form. We hope that this is straightforward, but if you have any queries please don’t hesitate to be in touch.
You can also sign up to our newsletter to hear about future competitions!
14/07/2025: Entry is now closed.
Rules
We want to keep this fairly simple and open – the only rules we have for entry are below.
- There is no minimum (or maximum) age requirement for entry, but please bear in mind that if you’re under 18 you legally need to have parental or guardian consent to enter. Anyone can submit, but please read the brief first and make sure that your poem and entry fits.
- The work must be your own, and we ask that you don’t submit it elsewhere in the mean time.
- Please do not include photographs or illustrations.
- Please only submit once – we will only consider your first entry if you enter again.
- Entries must be received by 11.59PM on Sunday 13th July 2025 to be considered.
Longlist
02/09/25: We’re delighted to announce the longlist (100 poems) for the Interwoven competition, which you can find below (sorted by poem title – you can search this page with ctrl/cmd + ‘F’ to find a name). The shortlist will be published in a few weeks’ time… In the mean time, please consider becoming a sponsor to help us bear the costs of this important project.
- ‘5000 Miles’ by Honey Matthews
- ‘a blue jay’s eulogy’ by Jaweerya Mohammad
- ‘A Comfortable Silence’ by Meghan McCarthy
- ‘A Gesture in Bethnal Green in Spring’ by James O’Hara-Knight
- ‘A Love Letter to Shanghai’ by Hannah Joyce Field
- ‘A Monologue at my Father’s Grave Explaining my Name Change Affidavit’ by Martins Deep
- ‘A Ten-Stanza Tale About Peregrinating Between Home & England’ by Bridgette O James
- ‘An Etchingham brass’ by Alison Binney
- ‘An Unfinished Memory (A Mother’s Anguish)’ by Christian Emecheta
- ‘Auntie’s Garden Was a Borderless Nation’ by Rayne Affonso
- ‘Blackbird’ by Iain MacLeod
- ‘Bog people’ by Peter Lockhart
- ‘Built for Discussion (Ghosts of Talleyrand-Périgord)’ by Diarmuid Cawley
- ‘die hard’ by poet the jules
- ‘Dreaming of idli sambar’ by Daphne Sampson
- ‘Dust’ by Heinrich Beindorf
- ‘Ecocide’ by Ifesinachi Nwadike
- ‘Extra time (The night air is cold on my back)’ by Ginger
- ‘Ezi- 345’ by Chinedum Ezeh
- ‘Failure to Respond is Tantamount to Resignation’ by Nicole Yurcaba
- ‘Faith Rewarded Through Benediction’ by Demi Monina
- ‘Fate*’ by Ilisha Thiru Purcell
- ‘First thing’ by koushik banerjea
- ‘Five fingers, a palm, and a reason to live’ by Linnea Hopfenbeck
- ‘For Keeps’ by Fiona Mossman
- ‘Four of Wands: At twenty-eight’ by Christina Hennemann
- ‘Fox Cubs’ by Emma Bennett
- ‘go on & roll the windows down’ by Abbie Doll
- ‘Good Friday on a Plane to Mexico’ by Thea Smiley
- ‘have a cuppa’ by Fatima Rugaya Tamzil
- ‘Hello William’ by Reshma Ruia
- ‘Honest work’ by Bernadette Chachati
- ‘How Do You Mourn 200 Ghosts in One Poem?’ by Abraham Aondoana
- ‘How Fortunate I Am’ by Deborah Gaudin
- ‘I Am Sleeping On a Piece of Queer History’ by A W Earl
- ‘i now owe a fiver’ by Dalia Sara Gala
- ‘In an Alternate Universe’ by Ayòdéjì Israel
- ‘In Sindhi’ by Sneha Subramanian Kanta
- ‘In Unison’ by Jaspreet Mander
- ‘In which I walk north and encounter an angel’ by Michele Clement
- ‘Inscription in which certain things are crossed out’ by Ziqi Yan
- ‘Is a mocking by Dickens a claim to fame?’ by Emma Lee
- ‘Just Coffee’ by Dianne McPhelim
- ‘Kaleidoscope’ by JP Seabright
- ‘Kente’ by Nana T. Baffour-Awuah
- ‘Last Blessing’ by Carole Greenfield
- ‘Lice in my hair’ by Kakoli Ghosh
- ‘Limes not Bombs’ by Eleanor Challis
- ‘Losing my lines’ by Rowan Bland
- ‘Love, Untranslated’ by A.G.
- ‘Lucky’ by Jess Skyleson
- ‘Magnolia’ by Ann Westgarth
- ‘Mesoamerica’ by Allison Kujiraoka
- ‘Not Alone’ by Steve Denehan
- ‘O negative!’ by Sophie Perret
- ‘Of Wings and Bone’ by LJ Ireton
- ‘On the best nights’ by Manganaro
- ‘Once Upon a Time Robert Bly Crashed His Tractor into a Ditch while Reading Omar Khayyam’ by Chaucer Cameron
- ‘Out of the Box’ by Marian Griffin
- ‘People Watching at the Lesbian Bar’ by George Woodhead
- ‘Plum Rain’ by Mark Rao
- ‘Poetry circle’ by Suchita Parikh-Mundul
- ‘Pomegranate’ by Evelyn Coombes
- ‘Private Conversations in Public’ by Tim Kiely
- ‘Queen’s English/ Honeysuckle; From Lugard’s White, Scented Hands’ by Nnadi Samuel
- ‘Rakhi’ by Sarayu Adeni
- ‘Re-education Centre’ by Dean Gessie
- ‘Recently I Joined A Community Garden’ by Sheena Hussain
- ‘Refugee, Refugee’ by Chiwenite Onyekwelu
- ‘Rope’ by Liam Boyle
- ‘Self Portrait As A Coral’ by Christian Ward
- ‘Shadow Made of Many Threads’ by Alex Hall
- ‘Snow White’ by Chalice Am Bergris
- ‘Texere’ by Colin Pink
- ‘The Blue Rider’ by Reyzl Grace
- ‘The Cowboy’ by Jessica Pickler
- ‘The Fifth of July’ by Arabella Green
- ‘The Hands That Held the Line’ by Daniel Naawenkangua Abukuri
- ‘The Impenetrable Jamaican Shoes’ by M.A. Henry
- ‘The last time I saw God’ by Monday de Wolfe
- ‘The Map of Broken Names’ by Janeeta Razia
- ‘The Orchid’ by Annie Dabb
- ‘The Peace Garden’ by Charles Pankhurst
- ‘The Same Sky’ by Avril Shakira Villar
- ‘The Towpath’ by Catherine Mayer
- ‘There Is No Me Without You’ by Kay Saunders
- ‘Thin Red Thread’ by Fedora Mensah
- ‘This Morning’ by John Kirk
- ‘Thread by Thread’ by Barun Baur
- ‘Times Tables’ by Emily Cullen
- ‘Touch in a Time of Contagion’ by Dave Wynne-Jones
- ‘Two trees’ by Ted Gooda
- ‘Unnoticed’ by Zoë Wells
- ‘Unravelling the Pattern’ by Susmita Bhattacharya
- ‘Waltz Tine: K2-18b’ by Oz Hardwick
- ‘We took the smoke, but we raise a child’ by Mitchelle
- ‘Weave’ by Alyson Smith
- ‘You Are an Anthology’ by Marina Sofia
- ‘your letters my words’ by Rishika Williams
Shortlist
08/10/25: We’re delighted to announce the shortlist (50 poems) for the Interwoven competition, which you can find below (sorted by poem title – you can search this page with ctrl/cmd + ‘F’ to find a name). The winners will be announced at an online launch on the 11th November – save the date now! In the mean time, please consider becoming a sponsor to help us bear the costs of this important project.
- ‘a blue jay’s eulogy’ by Jaweerya Mohammad
- ‘A Ten-Stanza Tale About Peregrinating Between Home & England’ by Bridgette O James
- ‘An Etchingham brass’ by Alison Binney
- ‘Auntie’s Garden Was a Borderless Nation’ by Rayne Affonso
- ‘Blackbird’ by Iain MacLeod
- ‘Bog people’ by Peter Lockhart
- ‘Dreaming of idli sambar’ by Daphne Sampson
- ‘Extra time (The night air is cold on my back)’ by Ginger
- ‘Ezi- 345’ by Chinedum Ezeh
- ‘Fate*’ by Ilisha Thiru Purcell
- ‘First thing’ by koushik banerjea
- ‘Five fingers, a palm, and a reason to live’ by Linnea Hopfenbeck
- ‘For Keeps’ by Fiona Mossman
- ‘Four of Wands: At twenty-eight’ by Christina Hennemann
- ‘go on & roll the windows down’ by Abbie Doll
- ‘Hello William’ by Reshma Ruia
- ‘How Do You Mourn 200 Ghosts in One Poem?’ by Abraham Aondoana
- ‘How Fortunate I Am’ by Deborah Gaudin
- ‘I Am Sleeping On a Piece of Queer History’ by A W Earl
- ‘i now owe a fiver’ by Dalia Sara Gala
- ‘In an Alternate Universe’ by Ayòdéjì Israel
- ‘In Sindhi’ by Sneha Subramanian Kanta
- ‘In Unison’ by Jaspreet Mander
- ‘Kaleidoscope’ by JP Seabright
- ‘Last Blessing’ by Carole Greenfield
- ‘Limes not Bombs’ by Eleanor Challis
- ‘Love, Untranslated’ by A.G.
- ‘Lucky’ by Jess Skyleson
- ‘Magnolia’ by Ann Westgarth
- ‘Not Alone’ by Steve Denehan
- ‘Out of the Box’ by Marian Griffin
- ‘People Watching at the Lesbian Bar’ by George Woodhead
- ‘Plum Rain’ by Mark Rao
- ‘Pomegranate’ by Evelyn Coombes
- ‘Private Conversations in Public’ by Tim Kiely
- ‘Rakhi’ by Sarayu Adeni
- ‘Recently I Joined A Community Garden’ by Sheena Hussain
- ‘Refugee, Refugee’ by Chiwenite Onyekwelu
- ‘Rope’ by Liam Boyle
- ‘The Blue Rider’ by Reyzl Grace
- ‘The Impenetrable Jamaican Shoes’ by M.A. Henry
- ‘The last time I saw God’ by Monday de Wolfe
- ‘The Map of Broken Names’ by Janeeta Razia
- ‘The Peace Garden’ by Charles Pankhurst
- ‘The Same Sky’ by Avril Shakira Villar
- ‘The Towpath’ by Catherine Mayer
- ‘Thin Red Thread’ by Fedora Mensah
- ‘Thread by Thread’ by Barun Baur
- ‘Unravelling the Pattern’ by Susmita Bhattacharya
- ‘We took the smoke, but we raise a child’ by Mitchelle