CC-BY-NC: Andrew Stuck A spiritual journey on a sacred route, or a personal journey in search of oneself, a challenge for charity, a ritual of repetition, or a holiday with a difference, following a musical idol or sporting hero. Many of us have set out on a pilgrimage, while others are planning to follow in the footsteps of ancestors across millenia.
Can you put into words your , experiences, impressions and memories, or those of pilgrims who may follow you, or have gone before?
We are seeking poems of no more than 250 words in our secular and spiritual pilgrimage-themed writing competition. Submissions that are pertinent to a particular location, and for which the locations is identified by the submitter, will be geo-located on this website.
We have invited poets to volunteer as judges, choosing a pilgrimage theme that resonates with them. Every 3 months we will switch themes and judges, and offer cash and other gifts as prizes, appointing Pilgrim Poets each quarter.
Our second chapter of the competition, with the theme of “A Sacred Place” chosen by judge Emma Storr. Emma and Peter Finch have kindly volunteered to be the judges for this chapter, that will have a submission deadline of midnight (UTC) on Monday 27 July. The next theme will be announced at the beginning of August.
Entry constitutes acceptance of all rules. Entries that fail to comply with the rules will be disqualified. No correspondence can be entered into, judges’ decisions are final.
Format
- Maximum length is 250 words excluding the title (that mustn’t exceed 8 words).
- Entries should be typed into the online form on this website or submitted as PDF in a plain legible font. A sans 12pt font is suggested.
- Entries will be read and judged anonymously so do not put your name, address, email, telephone number or any personally identifying information on any page.
- If the piece has no title, then its first five words must be used as the title.
- Acceptable file types is direct online submission to the website or PDF only.
You need register first on the walk · listen · create website, return to this page to pay the submission fee (a purchase), check that your ticket purchase has been successful on your profile page, and then submit your piece(s). There is an entry fee of €5 for a single submission, and €12 for unto 4 poems. The limit to the number of submissions you can make is 4.
Should you be unable to afford the fees, it will be waived – please email us at submissions[at]walklistencreate.org. We cannot guarantee issuing a fee waiver within one day of the closing date.
Be sure to submit by clicking on the “Submit your writing” button.
Eligibility
- Entrants must be 16 years or over.
- Entry is open to everyone.
- An entry can only be made by the work’s individual author.
- Entries must be fiction.
- Entries must not have been previously published in print or online, been broadcast or won a prize.
- Entries must not include any defamatory language.
- Entries must clearly respond to the theme, be original and written in English. They must also be for adult or young adult readers. Submissions written for children under 13 years are not eligible.
- Simultaneous submission is permitted. Should your writing piece win a prize or be published elsewhere, please let us know so that we may remove your entry from the current competition.
- Authors retain full worldwide copyright throughout.
Editing submissions
We may need to make slight editorial changes, these will be only be made following discussion with the author, the authors grant access to their email address to the editor.
Audio recording of pieces
Authors are invited to record themselves reading their work, or can choose to invite a friend to do so. Audio recordings will not be taken into account in the judging.
A €100 cash prize will be awarded the winning submission in each quarter of the competition, a runner-up will receive a cash prize of €25 (the more entry fees we receive the higher the cash prize will become).
When possible we will add to the prizes, with poetry books and pamphlets donated by members of our walk · listen · community. Volunteer judge Peter Finch has kindly donated a copy of his 2-volume The Collected Poems as a prize to the winner of the competition.
Winners and runners-up in each quarter will be invited to take part in an online, invitation only Writers Circle event in 2027, and will be acknowledged as walk · listen · create “Pilgrim Poets”. We hope to raise sufficient funds to create print anthology of winning poems for publication in 2027.
Submission deadline: midnight (UTC) on Monday, 27 July, 2026.
Key dates and competition time line:
- Competition launch – Tuesday 4 May, 2026
- Submission deadline: midnight (UTC) on Monday, July 27, 2026.
- Judging will be completed by the end of August when the shortlisted pieces based on the highest scores will be published on the write@WLC website and the winner and runner-up will be informed, and receive their cash prizes.
- TBC for Spring 2027 a Writers’ Circle by invitation only event will take place to which each competition quarter’s winner and runner-up will be invited to take part.
- By the end of July 2026, a new theme for the next 3 months will be announced.
| Andrew Stuck | Instance administrator | |
| emma storr | juror | Poem |
| Peter Finch | juror | Poem |
| Annemarie Lopez | editor | Poem |
| Alban Low | illustrator | Poem |