Competitions

Winners – 2025 Women’s Poetry Competition

We are delighted to share with you the outcome of this years’ Women’s Poetry Competition 2025. If you were able to join us, then you already know.
If you were unable to attend, I am pleased to bring you up to date.

Winner – Samantha Dennis – her poem – Standing Firm
Finalist – Larissa Fin – her poem – I’m Ok
Poem of Merit was awarded to Shirley Fifield for her poem Black Women Stand in Power and Pride.
Women’s Poetry Competition Ambassador – was awarded to Valerie Walbrook and Carolyn Turner for their commitment to these awards, and their wonderful growth in their poetry journey.

Carolyn was unable to attend but we will meet up soon to give her the trophy.

Thank you to everyone who submitted a poem this year. And congratulations to the winners.

Workshop
This year we ran a workshop earlier in the day. Thank you to everyone who attended this event. Numbers were few but we had a great time.

Here is one of the testimonials given:

“I thoroughly enjoyed the poetry workshop with Sandra. I learned so much about creativity and expressing myself as a poet. I have been inspired to write poetry and maybe one day I will be having a poetry book of my own published”. It was great!” – Natalie.

And this was from a woman who only came along to support her friend.

Women’s Poetry Competition 2024 – Results

By Sandra Pollock

We are excited to announce this year’s Winner and Finalist for the Women’s Poetry Competition 2024.

This year, the number of submissions was far higher than in the previous year, and the quality of the submissions was higher, which is all great and just what we want to see.

As a result, judging the competition was much more difficult. So, here are the results.

Winner: Selia White
Finalist: Sarah ‘Rain’ Kolawole
Poems of Merit:
Ayomikun Ogundele, Samantha Dennis, Ama McKenley-Ballantyne,Özlem İBİŞ YILMAZ, and Joss Kang.

Thank you also to our Competition Champions: Valerie Walbrook and Carolyn Turner, two gifted emerging writers and previous Winners of the competition who will be our spotlighted poets next year.

Congratulations to you all.

Leicester Women’s Poetry Competition 2024 – Black History Month 2024

By Sandra Pollock

Leicester Women’s Poetry Competition in celebration of the poetic voice of Black women.

You’re invited to take part in the annual Leicester Women’s Poetry competition in celebration of the poetic voice of Black Women. This year is ‘Reclaiming the Black Female Narrative’.

Submissions are invited for the competition. Here are the conditions.

Poem should be:

Focused on the theme – ‘Reclaiming the Black Female Narrative’.
30 lines or less.
Include the title, the Author’s name, and contact details at the end.
Submissions must be in English. In the case of translated work, it is the translator’s responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright holder of the original work.
If submitting a poem or short fiction that has been previously published, please give details of where it has appeared and confirm that you are the copyright holder.
Each author may submit only one poem.
The closing date for submission is Saturday 5th October 2025 at midnight. No submissions will be accepted for this competition after this date and time.
Shortlisted Authors will be invited to join and read their poems on Saturday 26th October 2024 at the event.
Attendance and reading of your poem are part of the competition.
Time: 1pm – 3pm.
Venue for reading and celebration: Highfields Library, 98 Melbourne Rd, Leicester LE2 0DS
Submissions must submitted by email to editor.sanroopublishing@gmail.com
Submission must be typed and submitted as a Word document. Submission in pdf or written in the email will not be accepted.
We welcome submissions from writers of all ages, based anywhere in the world, however, it should be noted that attendance at the event and the reading of the poem by the author is the second part of the competition.

At this event, we hear readings of shortlisted submissions to the completion by the authors and celebrate the voices of black female poets. The Judges will announce the Winner, present the winner’s trophy, and other prizes shared. There will be an opportunity for discussion and Q&A.

This event is open to the public, so bring your family.

Who is your favourite Black Female Poet?
She could be a local, national, or internationally known poet.
Come along and tell us about her. Share her name and work with us.

Women’s Poetry Competition

By Sandra Pollock

Our now annual Women’s Poetry Competition is running again this year. We’re giving you much earlier notice this year so that you can start writing now. As we continue our ‘Celebration of Black Female Voices, this year’s theme is ‘I Am Somebody‘.

How to make your submission:

Submissions should be emailed to:

editor.sanroopublishing@gmail.com or
africancaribbeancentre@leicester.gov.uk
Or handed in at the:
African Caribbean Centre, Maidstone Road, Leicester LE2 0UA
For more details contact 0116 2211 793

Please note the terms and conditions of the competition below:

The competition is open to women and girls from the age of 11 years upwards.
Poems should be 30 lines or less (with the title of the poem, the author’s name, and contact details at the bottom).
One poem only per person.
The competition is open for submissions from 26th June 2023 to 14th October 2023.
It is free to submit a poem.
Shortlisted contributors will be invited to join us and to read their poems at an event on Saturday 28th October 2023, 1pm to 3pm at The African Caribbean Centre, Maidstone Rd, Leicester LE2 0UA. This event is free to attend.
Winners will be announced on the day and prizes presented.
Please feel free to bring your family and friends along with you to the presentation event.
Please be sure to keep a copy of your work as we are unable to return any submissions sent to us.
All poems will remain the property of the author. However, by contributing your work to this competition you hereby give permission for the organisers and SanRoo Publishing to use your work in any subsequent promotion or publication. All references and ownership of any work used in this way will be given to the author.

BHM Women’s Poetry Competition

By Sandra Pollock

Each year we run our Women’s Poetry Competition in Leicester as part of our celebration of Black History Month (BHM) in the UK.

The readings and competition were held last Saturday 29th October 2022 at the African Caribbean Centre in the City of Leicester.

It was a wonderful occasion where we not only listened to some great poems and found out some of the stories behind the pieces shared with us, but we also got the audience to write some poetry as well. Some people surprised themselves. What a fun time we had.

Each year we ask those submitting work to write to a theme. The theme this year was Still I Rise taken from the title of the inspiring poem by the same name by Maya Angelou.

Thanks to our sponsors this year Leicester City Council, Serendipity, and Inspiring You CIC.

This year’s Winner was Valerie Walbrook with her poem I am Black History.

Left to Right: Marcia Brown, Service Delivery Manager (Area East), Neighbourhood Services, Leicester City Council, Valerie Walbrook – Winner, and Sandra Pollock SanRoo Publishing.

Carolyn Turner (last year’s Winner) was the Finalist this year with her poem Battercry.

Other women poets recognised on the day for their submissions, receiving ‘Poem of Merit’ were:
* Nelista Cuffy her poem Mother of Mine, You’re Missed.
* Pratibha Savani with her poem Empowered.
* Jacqueline Samuel with her poem To Love Ourselves.