Student and Alumni Writing Prizes

The Department of English hosts two poetry prizes for students and former students: The Miriam Allott Poetry Prize and The Felicia Hemans Prize for Lyrical Poetry.

Winning poems will be published here.


The Miriam Allott Poetry Prize

The Miriam Allott Poetry Prize (value about £130) is offered annually for the best poem submitted by an undergraduate student registered for a Single, Joint or Combined Honours degree programme in the Department of English at the University of Liverpool, or by a postgraduate student registered for a degree in English or Creative Writing. Each student may submit up to three poems in any one year, each one no longer than 50 lines. Each submission should be  on a separate peice of paper and should not bear the author's name; submissions should be accompanied by a covering letter giving the author’s name, student ID number, degree programme and titles of the poem(s) submitted. The 2017 prize is now closed. 

Recent winners of the Miriam Allott Poetry Prize: 

2015-2016: Bethany Booth with ‘Love Song II: April’

2014-2015: Jessica Coleman with 'Friday in Barcelona'

2013-2014: Alice Sholl with 'Delivery'


The Felicia Hemans Prize for Lyrical Poetry

The Felicia Hemans Prize for Lyrical Poetry goes to "the author of 'a lyrical poem' of merit, published or unpublished”, and is open to past and present members and students of the University of Liverpool. The prize is £200(one year’s income from the Felicia Hemans Memorial Fund plus additional generous sponsorship from Liverpool University Press.) The winner of the 2016 Feliica Hemans Prize for Lyrical Poetry was Natalie Bolderston, with Bà Ngoại