The Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition 2025 is now open for submissions with the theme of ‘Bells’.

Manchester Cathedral is celebrating the centenary of its peal of bells this November with a special project that will add to their number, strengthen the tower structure and replace the wooden frame with steel to ensure they ring out for the future.

The Polish poet Adam Zagajewski writes in Another Beauty about the bells of Krakow:

The air quivered frantically, and our bodies quivered with it. The Middle Ages suddenly returned, a late medieval afternoon, and the totalitarianism of bells, fear and joy, every molecule and cell, was vibrating: get to church, time for church, or so some historians would read this sound. But ringing bells aren’t pragmatic, and shouldn’t be reduced to commands or requests alone. This ringing merely makes the air’s latent, inner trembling both immanent and audible. It divulges the air’s hidden nature.

Zagajewski’s comment remind us of both the religious, social and communicative element of bells, how their sound transmits history, but also of the music inherent in the air which they divulge, reminding us of the ancient technology of poetry.

We want the competition to represent the many moods of bells, for example: the single bell tolling for a funeral, compared with a full, tower-shaking peal for a wedding or national celebration; bells sounding as warnings in the days before radio; bells summoning townsfolk to prayer, reminding everyone who hears them that the church is alive; bells said to be ringing under the sea when villages are submerged; bells for victory at the end of war.

The poems do not have to be overtly religious, nor do they have to be exclusively about bells, but can feature something of their sonority, shape, their prominence in literature, the characterful activity of bellringing, views from bell towers, how they stand up from any landscape conveying reassurance and strength. We encourage poems which engage directly with the Cathedral’s bell tower project.

Judges for the 2025 competition are Tom Branfoot, Becky May, Abhijeet Singh and Dean Rogers Govender.

Manchester Catheral are offering a winning prize of £200, with £50 for second place, and £25 for third place. There will be 10 highly commended poems with no financial renumeration.

Guidelines:

• This competition is judged anonymously. Do not include your name on the submission.
• One poem equals one entry.
• The first submission is free, if poets wish to submit more than one poem, each additional entry is £5.
• To pay for additional entries use this donation form and quote the receipt number on your email.
• Poems must be unpublished.
• Poems must be no longer than 30 lines.
• Please send submissions as a Word doc. or PDF file.
• We will not consider AI-generated content.
• Entrants can be of any or no faith.
• Entrants can be any age.
• We encourage under-16 entrants to state their age in the email body.
• No previous experience of creative writing or poetry required.
• All are welcome.

Submissions open on August 28th and close at midday on November 14th. The winning and highly commended poets will be announced in December. On Sunday January 25th 2026 we are having a prize ceremony with readings from the winning and commended poets.

Submissions should be sent to submissions@manchestercathedral.org with a small biographical note in the email.

All commended and prize-winning poems will be collated and printed in an anthology pamphlet. The first, second and third prize poems will be displayed throughout the year in Manchester Cathedral. The winning poem also be featured in Manchester City of Literature’s communications.

If you have any questions about the theme or general enquiries, do not hesitate to contact tom.branfoot@manchestercathedral.org.

Judges information:

Becky May is a Manchester-based poet with an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University. Her work has been published in PN Review, Propel Magazine & 14 Magazine, amongst others. Becky has worked as both poet-in-residence and poet mentor for the Comino Foundation, in collaboration with Manchester Poetry Library. She helps run the spoken word night Verbose and has been a judge for the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition for the last two years.

Tom Branfoot is a poet and critic from Bradford, and the writer-in-residence at Manchester Cathedral. He won a Northern Writers’ Award in 2024 and the New Poets Prize 2022. He organises the poetry reading series More Song in Bradford. Tom is the author of This Is Not an Epiphany (Smith|Doorstop) and boar (Broken Sleep Books), both published in 2023. His poem ‘A Parliament of Jets’ is shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2025. His debut collection Volatile is forthcoming with the87press.

Abhijeet Singh is a poet and translator. His work has appeared in Propel and The Bombay Literary Magazine. He was shortlisted for the Jane Martin Poetry Prize earlier this year and is the recipient of a Collaborative Doctoral Award from Manchester City of Literature and Manchester Metropolitan University.

The Very Reverend Rogers Govender MBE is Dean of Manchester Cathedral, a bronze award eco church. He believes our faith leads us to celebrate and promote diversity, inclusion and equality for all people. He also leads the Our Faith, Our Planet group, a forum raising awareness on environmental issues and encouraging collaboration to tackle the climate crisis across the region’s different communities.