We’re launching a new poetry award to bring science and creativity closer together. Too often, research can stay locked in academic language – but poetry offers a powerful way to make ideas felt, not just understood. This prize is for UK-based researchers who want to explore the climate crisis through a different lens, blending insight with imagination to reach wider audiences and spark new conversations.
For this competition – the first of its kind for The Conversation – we are inviting academics to write a poem inspired by climate change research.
The climate crisis is also a communications challenge: how do we tell stories that move people, not just to fear the future, but to imagine and build a better one? That question sits at the heart of our climate storytelling series, and it’s what we want you to consider when writing your poem. The Conversation UK’s climate poetry award 2026 is all about bringing research to life in a different way.
Whether you’re an experienced poet or completely new to writing poetry, we want to hear your perspective on climate change. Your poem can draw on your own research, the work of others or your general field of expertise. Entrants to this competition must be enrolled in a research position at a university in the UK. Poems must be minimum of three lines, maximum of 40 lines. No prior poetry experience is required.
The competition will kick off with a free introductory climate poetry workshop led by poet Professor Sam Illingworth of Edinburgh Napier University on May 13. Entries close on September 1 2026 (11.59pm BST).
The poems will be reviewed by a panel of judges: Senior Environment Editor Anna Turns, Senior Arts and Culture Editor Anna Walker and Professor Sam Illingworth. The winner will be selected from a shortlist by award-winning poet Professor Helen Mort, of Manchester Metropolitan University. Judges will be looking for creativity, a point of view and clarity of research communication.
Who can enter: UK-based academics currently enrolled in a research position (including PhD candidates, postdoctoral scholars and lecturers).
What to submit: A climate-themed poem (3–40 lines) and a supporting statement of up to 250 words on the research that inspired it.
Entry window: Open for entries now until September 1 2026 (11.59pm BST).
How to enter: Via the official submission form.
Workshop: Free online climate poetry workshop on May 13 2026
Prizes: First prize: five-day stay at The Little Goat Barn Writing Retreat (North Wales). Shortlisted poems published in a The Conversation ebook anthology.
Judges: Anna Turns, Anna Walker, Professor Sam Illingworth
Final winner selected by: Professor Helen Mort
In need of inspiration? Check out some of our favourite climate poems.
The prizes
Shortlisted entries will be published in an ebook by The Conversation UK in the autumn.
The winner will be hosted for five days at the Little Goat Barn Writing Retreat, in the peaceful and beautiful countryside of the Vale of Conwy in North Wales courtesy of The Ruppin Agency. They’ll be welcomed and fully catered for by husband and wife Dr Emma Claire Sweeney, author and creative writing lecturer, and Jonathan Ruppin, former literary agent and bookseller.
While there, they will have access to the 5,000-volume library, full of places to read, write and relax, and housed in a 400-year-old converted barn vaulted with the timbers of an ancient ship – as well as space to write in their room if they prefer. As well as socialising with a small group of other writers, other activities such as hill walks, wild swimming and a film night will be on offer. See terms and conditions for full details.
The judges
Sam Illingworth is a full professor at Edinburgh Napier University, where his research and practise involve using poetry and generative AI to explore connections between science and society.
“This competition is a great way of exploring the different ways in which scientists can communicate their work outside of traditional academic publishing,” says Illingworth. “Poetry is, in my opinion, an extremely effective way of developing empathy for a subject. I hope that in writing and reading poems about the climate crisis, researchers can better understand the impact that their work is having on different audiences.”
Helen Mort is a professor of creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
She has published four poetry collections with Chatto & Windus and her work has won awards in the UK and Canada.
In 2024, she wrote a poetry collection called Field Notes during a research expedition to Greenland with climate scientists from Manchester Met University. These poems explored the emotional and sensory effects of the changing landscape they experienced while investigating climate change.
Enter your poem here
Terms & Conditions 2026 – please read carefully.
Many thanks to our sponsor for this competition, Little Goat Barn Writing Retreat.
