VER POETS OPEN COMPETITION 2026
For poems of up to 30 lines
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Adjudicator: Vanessa Lampert
Closing Date: April 30th 2026
Prizes: 1st - £600, 2nd - £300, 3rd - £100
Short-listed poems published in The Ver Prize 2026 anthology
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Further details to follow.

Vanessa Lampert is an Acupuncturist, mentor, editor and teacher of poetry. Her work is widely published, recently in Magma, The Oxford Times, The Rialto, The London Magazine, Under the Radar, Oxford Poetry, and Poetry London. She runs workshops nationwide for adults and in schools and volunteers at Oxford Poetry Library. She was a co-founder of The Alchemy Spoon magazine.
Vanessa has won the Café Writers, Edward Thomas, Ashdown Forest and Sentinel prizes and the Ver Poetry prize (twice). She has been placed in many others including commendations in the Troubadour, Magma, Bridport, Verve, and National Competitions.
Vanessa’s pamphlet On Long Loan was published by Live Canon in 2020 and her full collection Say It With Me was published by Seren in 2023. Poems from that collection have been published in the Daily Telegraph poem of the week and the Forward Prizes anthology 2024.
