The Plough Prize - 2025

International Poetry Competition

Now in its twenty fifth year, the Plough Poetry Prize is an international open competition for poems in English up to 40 lines on any subject.

The competition is now closed.

Congratulations to Jane Burn who received 1st prize,

Damen O'Brien (2nd) and Mary Gilonne (3rd).

This year's Prize was judged by 

Pascale Petit 

Pascale Petit (photo Derrick Kakembo)

Pascale Petit was born in Paris and lives in Cornwall. She is of French, Welsh, and Indian heritage. Her ninth poetry collection, Beast, published by Bloodaxe in April 2025, won a Society of Authors Arthur Welton Award while in progress. Her eighth collection, Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe, 2020), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and for Wales Book of the Year. Her seventh, Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe, 2017), won the inaugural Laurel Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Four earlier collections were shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Pascale was a co-founder of The Poetry School, has been Chair of the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Laurel Prize, and led popular poetry classes at Tate Modern for nine years. Her debut novel, My Hummingbird Father, was published by Salt in 2024.

The Prizes