Poetry Competition - £1,000 prize!
The motorcitysixty poetry competition is open now and closes for entries on 20 March 2025, marking the 60th anniversary of the 1965 Motown Revue arriving in the UK,
Scroll down for the how to enter and more information...
Rules for entry (click here for pdf version):
The competition is open to anyone living anywhere in the world aged 19 years or older.
We are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first Motown Revue tour outside the USA in 1965, when this music came to the attention of new audiences in the UK and Europe for the first time. In the six decades since then, Motown has gone on to become a global brand, influencing many music genres, such as Funk, 2 Tone, Hip-hop, Lovers’ Rock.
We want your poems interpreting this theme any way you wish, so tell us about the soundtrack to your weekends - your lives, your loves, your rites of passage…
A prize of £1,000 will be awarded to the winning entry. The prize may be split between two or more winners if entries are considered to be of equal merit. In addition, a prize of £100 will be awarded to the winning entry from all those submitted by North Somerset (UK) residents.
The organisers (Clevedon LitFest, registered charity no. 1206829) reserve the unrestricted rights to publish winning and shortlisted entries in an anthology, on their website and to use in future, relevant promotions. Authors will retain worldwide copyright. The anthology will be available in electronic format, free of charge, to winners and highly shortlisted entrants. Any print versions that may later be produced will be available for purchase by entrants at a discount (plus any post + packaging costs).
Submissions:
- You may submit up to three poems for a fee £10 sterling.
- You may submit more than one entry (of up to three poems), paying the appropriate fee.
- Poems must be no more than 50 lines in length (excluding title).
- Entries must be typed (min 11 pt font size), written mostly in English (some slang, dialect or patois allowed) and sent in any of the following formats (.doc,.docx, .pdf, .rtf).
- Please name your file(s) with the title of your poem (one file for each poem).
- Any poems containing offensive, defamatory or discriminatory language, or language promoting hate speech or violence will be disqualified.
- The poem must be your own, original work and should not have won another competition, been broadcast in any format, or have been previously published in print or online (poems shortlisted in other competitions are acceptable).
- No changes will be permitted once work has been submitted.
- Entries must not have been generated, in whole or part, by any form of artificial intelligence. If this is found to be the case, the entry will be disqualified and fees will not be refunded.
- Your name, or any other identifying marks, should not be added to your entry.
- A fee of £10 per entry (of up to three poems) must be paid via PayPal.
- Fees are non-refundable, even if the entry is ruled ineligible.
- Your entry should be sent by email.
- In your email, you must include: your name; address; email address; contact number; the title(s) of your poems and the PayPal reference number.
- If entering more than once, each entry MUST be submitted in a separate email.
- Please keep a copy of your work as entries cannot be returned.
- The email to send your entries to is entries@motorcitysixty.com
- The closing date for receipt of entries is 11.59pm 20 March 2025 (UK time).
- Prize-winners will be contacted in the week commencing 7 May 2025.
Judging:
• A panel of judges will read all entries.
• The guest judge will select the winning poems from a shortlist of 50.
• All poems will be judged anonymously.
• In the event of a tie for the winning poem, the prize money will be distributed equally between both winners.
• The competition is not open to Clevedon LitFest's employees, freelance contractors, trustees, their immediate families, or our partner organisations.
Entries not following these rules will be disqualified.
• The judges’ decision is final, no feedback will be given, and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the merits of individual submissions.
All winning poets will be invited to read their work (pre-recorded or in person) at the awards ceremony, which is currently planned for 7 June 2025.
By submitting your entry, you agree to receiving emails regarding future Clevedon Litfest events and competitions. You can opt out by notifying us in your entry email.
Introducing Grammy-nominated Adam White - our guest judge for this competition...
A frequent contributor to Music Week, NME, Melody Maker, Rolling Stone and Mojo, Adam has been in the music business for more than 50 years. Previously, Adam was editor-in-chief of Billboard magazine, and was historical consultant for the 2023 BBC-TV documentary, When Motown Came To Britain.
Adam is probably best known for Motown: The Sound of Young America (Thames & Hudson, 2016) his most recent book, written with Berry Gordy's right-hand man, Barney Ales. Ten years in the making, Motown: The Sound of Young America is the definitive, beautifully produced visual history of Motown, the most successful independent record company in the world.
The book is a spectacular labour of love, befitting the incredible story of a label which, like no other, defined popular music in the second half of the 20th century. The stars of Motown are described as suave, sassy and sophisticated, the label shaping the careers of so many of the greatest musicians of all time.
Motown produced more US number-one hits than the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys combined, achieving, over two decades, 53 number one hits from a total of 179 top ten classics. Its songs have been covered by artists too numerous to mention, including everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Flying Lizards, via Frankie Valli, the Beatles and the Stones.