We’re honoured to announce the results of Dark Poets Prize V.

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With more than 4,000 poems submitted from 42 countries, this edition has confirmed what we have suspected since Prize I: the appetite for the dark, the uncomfortable and the unflinchingly honest has no ceiling.

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This round did not simply go dark; it went everywhere at once. Poets reached for the sestina and the scream in equal measure. The range was staggering. The craft, relentless. More than once, a poem stopped us mid-read.

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Judging was brutally difficult. Lines lodged beneath the ribs. Images followed us away from the desk and refused to leave. Every poet who placed in this edition of the Dark Poets Prize earned that recognition against a field that refused to make anything easy.

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What follows are our winners, Shortlist and Honourable Mentions: the poems and poets that stayed with us long after the reading was done.

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To everyone whose work appears in these pages, congratulations. You helped make this our largest and most difficult Prize yet.

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❗️If your name is not here, please know this is not a verdict on your writing as a whole. The margins this year were razor-thin. Every poem was read in full and every final decision cost us something.

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To every poet who entered: thank you. You trusted us with your darkness, and that matters. Keep writing. Keep excavating. Keep sending us what you are not meant to say out loud.

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The next Dark Poets Prize is already in motion. In the meantime, keep an eye out for our next Mini Challenge.

 

Yours in darkness,

 

Dark Poets Club Editorial Team

 

Stay tuned for more updates as we celebrate the extraordinary talent within our community!​​​​

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