BIG THINGS little things Poetry Competition

By The Poets XYZ | Posted: Monday Jul 14, 2025

Entries close 1 August 2025

Get out your imagination and write some poems for children as part of our Big Things Little Things competition for Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day 2025. You have three more weeks left to get your entries in. See below for competition details and how to enter. #NZPoetryDay

Timeline: open now - closes midnight Friday 1st August 2025

Winning poems to be celebrated on Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day, Friday 22nd August 2025

Theme: “BIG THINGS little things” – to be interpreted as widely and wildly as entrants like

Winning poem: $50 cash prize

Judge: Renowned children’s writer and poet, Bill Nagelkerke

Criteria:

• Entry is free

• Open to anyone in New Zealand aged 18 years and over

• Send in up to three poems aimed at 5-12 year olds

• There is a 25 line limit per poem

• Poems should be previously unpublished (including not on private blogs, websites, social media)

• Poems should be all your own work and not have any AI generated content.

• Any poems found to have AI generated content will be disqualified

• Poems should be written in English

• Previous winners are welcome to enter

To Submit:

• Poems should be in a single Word document. Please use the title of your first poem as the file name for this document. Please don’t include your name anywhere in this document

• You will need to provide a short author bio including a sentence or two about why you write poetry for children (up to 100 words)

• Preferred method: Completing the online entry form (requires Google account) at https://forms.gle/x2VjZ7kSEDqh4zj19
  

• Alternative method: Emailing your Word document to thepoetsxyz@gmail.com. Please put Big Things Little Things Poetry Competition in the subject line. In the body of your email please include your name, the title(s) of your poem(s) and a brief author bio (up to 100 words) and 2-3 sentences about why you write poetry for children

The Fine Print:

By submitting an entry, you are consenting to your poem:

• being promoted as part of Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day 2025 which may include being published in whole or in part on social or other media;

• being published on social and other media to promote poetry for children in New Zealand and any future poetry for children competitions run by The Poets XYZ for National Poetry Day.

• being used in future digital or printable media to promote poetry for children in New Zealand

  
  

Writers will retain copyright of their poems. Unfortunately it is not possible to provide personal feedback for each entry we receive.

Thank you to National Poetry Day and Phantom Billstickers for their support for this event.

For more info email thepoetsxyz@gmail.com or visit us on Facebook