The 2025-26 Keats-Shelley competition has been launched, with prizes for essays and poems and the Young Romantics Prize, also for essays and poems, open to those aged 16 to 18. The theme for the prizes has been chosen to mark the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s dystopian novel, The Last Man, which was published in January 1826. Entries are free, and entrants are welcome from around the world and entries are free. Entrants can submit as many entries as they wish.

This year’s chair of the judges will be author, journalist and critic Rupert Christiansen. He will be joining the returning judges, poets Will Kemp and Professor Deryn Rees-Jones for the poetry prizes, and for the essay prizes, Professor Simon Bainbridge and Professor Sharon Ruston. 

Entrants to the Keats-Shelley prize and Young Romantics prize poetry competitions are asked to submit a poem, on the theme of ‘Dystopia’ or ‘Utopia’. The Keats-Shelley essay competition invites entrants to explore any aspect of the life and work of the Romantic writers, whilst the Young Romantics essayists are invited to respond to two essay questions focused on dystopia and Utopia. The deadline is 2 February 2026. More details

The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association is a charity founded in 1903 to promote and celebrate the work of the Romantic poets. As well as running the annual Keats-Shelley and Young Romantics poetry and essay prizes, it publishes the Keats-Shelley Review and is the custodian of the Keats-Shelley House in Rome, the house beside the Spanish Steps where John Keats died in 1821. The house has been a museum dedicated to the English Romantic poets since it opened to the public in 1906 and offers an outreach programme of lectures and events. 

Picture shows last year's Keats-Shelley prize winners with the 2024 chair of judges, Tom Holland

PHOTOGRAPH: HAYLEY MADDEN / MADDMANN PHOTOGRAPHY