Audio poems up to 4 minutes long. Written by you. Read by you. Recorded on an audio file by you. Sent to us to listen to. Audio Poetry. On whatever subject fascinates you. Express yourself fully. That’s right: we want your poem, read in your voice.

You don’t have to be a performance poet or a voice-over artist to read your work aloud and record it on your phone. The Plaza Prizes is new, and we’re on the lookout for new talents in new digital forms. Try it, write a poem this week. Edit it. Let it rest. Return, to give it shape over time by reading it out loud. Again. And again. Allow your voice to give it form. Then, when it’s ready, record it, transform it into an audio poem, and enter the audio file of that one poem into this competition.

Our judge, Anthony Joseph is an award-winning poet, novelist, musician and academic. He has written four collections of poetry, the most recent of which, Sonnets for Albert, won the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry (2022) and was nominated for the Forward Prize for Best Collection (2022). He has also published four novels, the most recent of which is The Frequency of Magic.

Anthony has released eight critically acclaimed albums, and in 2020, received a Paul Hamblyn Foundation Award for Composing. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths and currently lectures in Creative Writing at King’s College, London.

So, come 1st March 2023, send Anthony your audio poems, recorded in your own voice on a phone or by using a free recording programme, like Audacity. Audio Poetry is a new and exciting literary field to experiment in. We’ll feature the short-listed entries and winners on our website.