The Poetic Republic Poetry Prize is an open online poetry competition that is judged by the community of entrants.
The competition is annual and closes on 30 April. The judging takes place in May and June. Entrants judge small groups of 12 poems. All judging is anonymous. It is a knockout system in three rounds. In the final round only the 12 shortlisted poems remain.
The Poetic Republic Poetry Prize employs a form of anonymous peer review. Anonymous peer review is typically found in a scholarly or professional context where the number of reviewers is small and the reviewers are acknowledged experts. By contrast, the Poetic Republic process engages a much larger number of peers although the expertise of these peers is unknown.
There is a Single Poem Prize of £2,000 and a Portfolio Prize of £1,000.
The name of the Poetry Prize was changed from MAG Poetry Prize to Poetic Republic Poetry Prize for the 2012 event.
The 2012 competition attracted 1,404 entries from 50 countries (2011 competition – 1,015 entries from 36 countries).
The Poetry Prize 2012 and the Poetry Prize 2011 were supported by Arts Council England.
The Poetry Prize 2009 launched with no fixed prize fund. The prize fund accumulated in proportion to the number of entries. In 2011 this system was replaced by a guaranteed prize fund. The first three years of the Poetry Prize supported Mines Advisory Group with a donation of £1 per entry.
Notable prize winners include Clare Foges.