​Submissions for Poets Meet Painters 2025 Open May  2025

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Sponsored by Mill Cove Gallery and PFK Goldsmiths Kenmare

Telephone   064 6640780         All enquires to poetsmeetpainters@gmail.com

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Poets meet Painters is a competition by Mill Cove Gallery for original, previously unpublished poems in the English language, inspired by the paintings featured on the webpage  INSPIRING ARTWORKS in any style up to 30 lines long. Poets of all ages, gender or nationality are eligible to enter.

Closing date for submissions is the 8 July 2025 and the notification of selected poems will be made on or before Monday 28 July 2025.

Awards sponsored by Mill Cove Gallery and PFK Kenmare (Gold & Silversmiths)

Prizes: €600 (1st), €300 (2nd), €100 (3rd)

Submission Fees: €10 for 1 or2 poems

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Judges: Robert Mohr (principal), Cathy Leonard, John W. Sexton and Eileen Sheehan.

 

HOW TO ENTER

Note: You may pay your entry fee online or by PayPal, Cheque / Postal Orders or by Bank Transfer

Submit your poems online at https://www.millcovegallery.com/poets-meet-painters-2025 or email your poems with your entry form to: poetsmeetpainters@gmail.com or see 14.

 

Rules and Privacy Policy:

1. Poems must be in English, unpublished, and not accepted for future publication elsewhere (before the due date of results).

2. Poems should be single space typed and must be no longer than 30 lines (excluding title). Submit your poems

online at  https://www.millcovegallery.com/poets-meet-painters-2025 or in the body of an email or as an attachment (word document) to poetsmeetpainters@gmail.com or see 14.

3. Up to 2 poems may be entered on payment of €10 online, or by cheque or postal order in euro only, made payable to Mill Cove Gallery

4. Please try and submit your poems online at https://www.millcovegallery.com/poets-meet-painters-2025 or by email. If you wish to submit by post then each poem should be on a separate sheet, which should not include the name of the author. (See 14)

5. The author’s name and address should be provided on the Entry Form above

6. The winners and commended writers will be notified by e-mail or text

7. Winning and commended poems will be read at the Carnegie Arts Centre, Kenmare, and will be published in a printed anthology.

8. The Results will be published on www.millcovegallery.com and www.kenmareartsfestival.com/home

9. Poems cannot be returned, please do not send your only copy.

10. By entering this competition, you provide information such as your address and e-mail address which may be deemed personal information. These will be processed according to the data protection acts.

11. By entering this competition, you agree that we may contact you by e-mail or telephone with the results of the competition.

12. Copyright in poems remains with the authors. Submission of an entry licenses Mill Cove Gallery to publish the entry in book form and online, and to read it at a public presentation, in connection with this and other competitions.

13. Entries will be anonymised before submission for judging. The judges’ decision will be final, and no correspondence can be entered into.

14. Postal entries should be sent to: Poets meet Painters, Mill Cove Gallery, 21 Main Street, Kenmare, Co Kerry V93 X4DX. Online entries should be sent to: poetsmeetpainters@gmail.com

15. The submission of poems for Poets meet Painters will be taken as indicating acceptance of the above conditions.

16. Mill Cove Gallery reserves the right to disqualify entries which are reasonably deemed libellous or otherwise actionable under civil or criminal law. In such cases entry fees will not be refunded.

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Dates to remember

1. Submit fee, form, and poems by 5 pm by Tuesday 8 July 2025

2. Notification of selection on or before Monday 28 July 2025

3. Publication of poetry anthology – Poets meet painters 2025

4. Presentation of awards at the Carnegie Arts Centre 10 August at 6.30pm with selected readings of awarded poems

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​The Judges

Robert Mohr, Ph.D., lives in Dublin and specializes in Anglo-Irish literature and American poetry. His Ph.D. from University College Dublin, focused on the intersection of W.B. Yeats and James Hillman's works. Prior to this, he completed his M.A. in English and American Literature at San Francisco State University in 1982, exploring Theodore Roethke's poetry for his thesis. He also holds a Secondary Teaching Credential from the University of California at Berkeley. He has contributed significantly to writing education with his publication How to Write: Tools for the Craft. He was involved with establishing the Open Window Gallery in Rathmines in 2014.

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Cathy Leonard, originally from Tyrone now living in Dublin, has been writing and teaching for over thirty years. She has facilitated creative writing workshops in Adult Education Centres and at UCD. Her poetry, short stories, and children’s fiction have been widely published in Ireland and the UK. Her credits include: The Cork Literary Review, The Works, Poets Meet Painters, Skylight 47, New Isles, The Fish Anthology and most recently The Irish Times Poetry Section. She has been shortlisted for several awards including the Bridport Flash Fiction Competition, and was runner up in the Fish Flash Fiction Award and in Sceine, Kenmare Poetry Festival Competition.

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John W. Sexton was born in 1958 and identifies with the Aisling poetic tradition. His work spans vision poetry, contemporary fabulism and tangential surrealism. He is the author of seven poetry collections, the most recent being: The Offspring of the Moon (Salmon Poetry 2013), Futures Pass (Salmon Poetry 2018), and Visions at Templeglantine (Revival Press 2020). A chapbook of his surrealist poetry, Inverted Night, came out from SurVision in April 2019. His next collection, The World Under the World, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry. He is a past nominee for The Hennessy Literary Award and his poem The Green Owl was awarded the Listowel Poetry Prize 2007 for best single poem. In 2007 he was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry.

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Eileen Sheehan lives in Killarney. One of the poems from her most recent collection, The Narrow Way of Souls (Salmon Poetry), featured on the Leaving Certificate English Syllabus 2019 - 2022. Anthology publications include TEXT: A Transition Year English Reader; Blackjack, with translations by Oana Lungu; Best Loved Poems: Favourite Poems from the South of Ireland and The Deep Heart’s Core: Irish Poets Revisit a Touchstone Poem. A selection of her work appears on Poetry International Web with an introductory essay by Paul Casey. She has read at festivals in Ireland and abroad and was Bealtaine Writer in Residence at The Seanchaí Kerry Writers’ Museum, Listowel.

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All enquires to poetsmeetpainters@gmail.com