We have been on the ‘look-out’ for a poetry competition or prize that is exclusively focused on walking and to date we haven’t found one (apart from our own). The poetry universe is huge, there are prizes awarded for hundreds of themes, and many of the more general ones have chosen walking as a theme but the whole competition isn’t about walking.

With five years of experience and success in running flash fiction and poetry competitions on walking, appointing writers-in-residence and publishing a print anthology, and in some cases geolocated audio recitals for each of our annual competitions, we feel that walk · listen · create should establish a poetry competition focused exclusively on walking.

So launching this month, our Poetry and Walking competition will have a theme of On Pilgrimage, and will run for a year.

Pilgrimage has been growing in popularity over the last decade. Whether it’s a journey to a faith or fandom destination, or a transformational journey to discover more about oneself, or walking established pilgrimage routes, or carving one’s own route to bring attention to issues of local, national or global importance, there isn’t a day that goes by, when there isn’t someone on a pilgrimage.

Concurrent to our poetry competition, in collaboration with the World Trails Network, we are running a series of monthly online events On Pilgrimage and are building a collection of Pilgrimage Resources that include a rich variety of blog posts, books, videos and walking art pieces from which you can draw inspiration.

The structure of our competition will be that each quarter will be offering a different theme chosen by our volunteer judges, and at the end of the quarter, an entry submitted during that quarter, will be selected to win a cash prize of €100, and its author will take on the mantle of Pilgrim Poet.

During the year we plan to have four themes linked to pilgrimage. The first theme was chosen by Electra Rhodes and Marcelle Newbold, our volunteer judges, that is a quote from Augustine Solvitur Ambulando – “solved by walking”. We intend to announce the winners and publish their poems before the end of May – keep a look out!

The second theme of “A Sacred Place” has been chosen by widely-acclaimed poet Emma Storr, who has volunteered as a competition judge. The competition will run between the beginning of may until the deadline of midnight on Monday 27 July. Emma is joined by former Chief Executive of Literature Wales, psychogeographer and poet Peter Finch, who has generously donated his 2-volume The Complete Poems as an additional prize for the winner. Both Peter and Emma were guests of Lydia Kennaway, our 2021/2 poet-in-residence for her Footloose series.

We invite you to write a poem of not more than 250 words, on the theme of Solvitur Ambulando and submit it to our competition for a chance of winning a cash prize of €100. We also asked published writers within our community to donate copies of their books as prizes.

• Follow this link to learn more about the competition and how you can enter.