Shortlist announced
We are very pleased to announce that the Shortlisted Titles for the 2020 Rialto Pamphlet Competition are, in no particular order,
Trombone, Hello, Before After, Queerfella, Fridges, Shit Happens, The Sushi Chef’s Wife, The Presence of Absence, Sea Level, Faint.
Congratulations to the poets concerned.
Will Harris, our Judge, will be announcing the winner very soon. Our thanks to everyone who entered.
Michael Mackmin
The competition is now closed.
The Rialto open pamphlet competition 2020
The Rialto invites you to enter our 2020 pamphlet competition, with the chance of getting published in our award-winning pamphlet series.
1st prize: publication of the winning pamphlet + launch reading + up to £200 travel expenses
Poets on the shortlist of 10 will each get a paragraph of feedback. The winner and 3 others will have a poem published in The Rialto. All shortlisted poets will have a poem published on our website.
Deadline: 15th May 2020
OUR JUDGE – WILL HARRIS
The judge this year is Will Harris, one of the most exciting and skilful young poets living and working in the UK. He was born in 1989 and is based in London. His heritage is Anglo-Indonesian. He is a graduate of the Complete Works III programme, is an Editor with The Rialto, and teaches at The Poetry School: he has been shortlisted for the Forward Single Poem Prize and his brilliant debut pamphlet All This Is Implied (Happenstance, 2017) was joint winner of the LRB Pamphlet of the Year. His first collection RENDANG is expected from Granta in February 2020 and is one of the most eagerly awaited poetry publications in a long time. While an editor at The Rialto he has introduced us to many new and accomplished poets. As well as being a very intelligent poet he is a wonderful commentator on social and cultural matters. Answering an interview question about writing, Will encouraged poets to ‘be the best boldest self you can be’: we are confident that entrants to the competition will rise to this challenge.
COMPETITION RULES
YOUR PAMPHLET
Please send us 18-24 pages of poems. Poems should be typed in single spacing on one side of A4 paper and in a font size of 12. Start each poem on a new page. Maximum 40 lines per page. If you include a poem sequence in which the poems are 14 lines long or less then you may put two on a page.
All poems must be your original work. They may have been published in magazines (paper or online) and anthologies but not in a pamphlet or collection. Poems must be in the English language or any of its dialects. They must be for adults and must not be translations of someone else’s work.
Your pamphlet must have a title which should appear on each page. Please do a front page with the pamphlet title and list of contents. Entries must be anonymous. Please don’t put your name or contact details on any of the pages. And don’t give us any other information (eg magazine credits).
When submitting by post: please send us two copies of your front page. Both copies should show the pamphlet title and a contents list. One copy only should also contain your contact details: name, address, email, phone number.
When submitting through Submittable: please put the title of your pamphlet in the title box; do not include your name. In the contact details box list your name, address, email, phone number. The document you upload may be a Pdf; Word .doc or .docx; or .Odt
Anyone may enter unless they advise or work for The Rialto.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed but please let us know straight away if your pamphlet has been accepted elsewhere. The fee is not refundable. No changes can be made once you have submitted the pamphlet. We won’t return your pamphlet so please keep a copy.
HOW TO ENTER
The deadline is midnight UK time on the 15th May 2020. Postal entries postmarked on that date will be accepted. Submittable users: we recommend you enter well before the deadline to avoid any technical problems arising from a last-minute rush. You can enter using Submittable here.
Entry costs £24, or £18 if you are a Rialto subscriber. Non-subscribers may pay the subscribers’ rate if they take out a subscription when they enter. You can subscribe to the magazine here. (UK £25 or £19 concessionary rate, for 3 issues: Rest of the World £25 plus £20 shipping costs). Payment must be in pounds sterling.
If entering by post send your poems to: The Rialto (Pamphlet Competition), c/o 74 Britannia Road, Norwich, NR1 4HS, England. Enclose a cheque made out to The Rialto. Please make sure you’ve put enough stamps on the letter.
Online entries open on February 8th 2020. Use Submittable here.
You will need a Submittable account to enter online, these are very straightforward to set up and use.
You will be given the option to pay either by credit card or by Paypal. If entering from outside the UK it’s probably easier to enter online; Paypal will convert your fee to pounds sterling. But if you wish to enter by post from abroad you may do so provided you are able to include a cheque in pounds sterling.
JUDGING AND RESULTS
Michael Mackmin and the Rialto team will read all the entries and submit a longlist of 50 pamphlets to the judge, Will Harris. Will will choose the winning pamphlet and a shortlist of 9 others. He will provide a paragraph of feedback to all 10 poets. The winner and shortlisted poets will be contacted in June/July 2020.
The winning pamphlet will be published by The Rialto in late 2020. Copyright will remain with the author. The Rialto will have the right to use any of the poems for publicity. If any of the runner-up or shortlisted poems prove to be excellent we may offer to publish them as well as the winning pamphlet.
The Rialto will hold a launch in London or East Anglia. We’d expect the winner to help with organisation and publicity for this, but will pay for it and offer travel expenses (capped at £200).
The winner will be given 30 free copies of the pamphlet to sell. They will also be able to buy further copies at a discounted rate. The Rialto will send out review copies.
A poem from the winning pamphlet and one each from three shortlisted pamphlets will be published in The Rialto magazine. These poems will also be published on our website, along with a poem from each of the other shortlisted pamphlets.
We reserve the right to change the judge if unforeseen circumstances arise.