We are very pleased to announce that thanks to support from Unison (Newcastle City Centre branch), and Newcastle Trades Union Council, the eighth Bread and Roses Poetry Award is now open until the end of August for entries.

Our mission is to promote cultural democracy in all the arts and other cultural activities. We run the Bread and Roses Poetry Award to create opportunities for working people to write poetry, and to encourage all poets to focus on themes which are meaningful to working-class communities.

This year we are asking for poems to focus as usual on themes relevant to working-class life, struggle, communities and culture, including poems on the Spirit of Socialism / the Socialism of the Spirit, to be interpreted as broadly as entrants can imagine. Jenny Mitchell, a poet who has previously won the Bread and Roses Award (as well as several other awards), is supporting this strand to the B and R Award this year by running two workshops on the theme The Sacred and the Profane. See here for further details and to sign up.

As in previous years, there will be 5 prizes of £100 each for the best poems, and the judges will be Dr. Fran Lock, poet, Associate Editor of Culture Matters, shortlisted for the 2023 TS Eliot Poetry Prize, and Alan Morrison, poet, editor, Associate Editor of Culture Matters and also a past winner of the Bread and Roses Poetry Award.

Rules and Guidelines 

1. You may enter one or two original, previously unpublished (in print) poems in English, no more than 50 lines long each.

2. You must be resident in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland.

3. Entry is free and there will be five prizes of £100 each for the best poems.

4. Entries should broadly deal with themes relevant to working-class life, politics, communities and culture, including the Spirit of Socialism / the Socialism of the Spirit.

5. Entries should be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by midnight on 31^st August 2024. No entries will be accepted after that date.

6. Please include the poem(s) and your name, address, and email contact details in the body of the email.

7. All entries remain the copyright of the author, but Culture Matters will have the right to publish them online and in print.

8. By entering the Award, entrants agree to accept and be bound by the rules of the Award and the decisions of the judge. We are unable to respond individually to submissions.

We will publish an anthology of selected poems and send free copies to all the poets included. Below is the pdf of last year's book, you're welcome to download it and we hope you enjoy reading it. You're also welcome to make a donation here if you can afford it, which will help pay for us to continue with the Bread and Roses Poetry Award.