The 2025-26 Keats-Shelley and Young Romantics Prizes are open. There are two competitions – poetry and essays – and two age groups: the Keats-Shelley Prize, which is open to all, and the Young Romantics Prize, aimed at anyone aged between 16-18.
Picture Credit. bpk / Hamburger Kunsthalle, SHK / Elke Walford
The theme of this year’s Poetry Prize has been chosen to mark the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s The Last Man. Entrants are invited to submit poems on the subject of either “Dystopia” or “Utopia”.
Keats-Shelley essayists are invited to write on any aspect of the work and/or lives of the Romantics and their circles. Young Romantics can respond to one of two questions set by the judges.
Chairing the judging panel is author, journalist and critic Rupert Christiansen. Returning as judges of the Poetry Prize are Will Kemp and Professor Deryn Rees-Jones, and for the Essay Prize Professor Simon Bainbridge and Professor Sharon Ruston.
Picture Credit. Mary Shelley by Richard Rothwell, circa 1831-1840. © National Portrait Gallery, London. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
The deadline for both competitions is 2nd February 2026. The winners will be announced at the annual Keats-Shelley Awards in April.
