AVBOB Poetry Competition 2025 : avbobpoetry.co.za
Organization : AVBOB Mutual Assurance Society
Competition Name : AVBOB Poetry Competition 2025
Applicable For : Citizen of South Africa
Competition Deadline : 30th November 2025
Website : https://www.avbobpoetry.co.za/Content/HowToEnter
AVBOB Poetry Competition
The AVBOB Poetry Competition 2025 is organised by AVBOB Mutual Assurance Society (“AVBOB”), headquartered at 368 Madiba Street, Pretoria Central, Pretoria, 0002.
Opening & Closing Time
** The Competition opens for entry at 09h00 South African Standard Time (SAST) on 1 August 2025.
** The closing date of the Competition is at 23h59 South African Standard Time (SAST) on 30 November 2025.
Who Can Participate?
** The Competition is open to any citizen of South Africa, unless excluded by these Competition rules.
** Any person of any age may enter, but if you are under 18 years of age, your parent or guardian must acknowledge that they have read, understood and accepted the competition rules on your behalf.
How To Enter?
Fill your paper with the rhythms of your heart…
Then follow these four easy steps
1. Register your profile
** Simply click on Register and follow the prompts to register your profile online.
2. Get to know the legal jargon
** Be sure to familiarise yourself fully with all the nitty gritty in the Legal documents section on this website so that you’re ready to accept the terms and conditions of the Competition rules when you submit your poem.
3. Check the editorial guidelines
** Read the Editorial guidelines and evaluation criteria carefully so that you can align your poem accordingly.
4. Write and submit your poem
** Craft your poem and submit your entry online. During the online submission process, you will automatically be prompted to insert the relevant personal details, select your language and choose the category for entry.
Entry Rules
** Entrants may enter poems in more than one of the language categories, however, the same poem(s) may not be translated and entered in more than one language category.
** Only online submissions will be accepted.
** Poems may be submitted in any of the 11 official South African languages. For poems that are not in English, an English translation of poems would be appreciated, but is not compulsory.
** A single entrant may submit no more than 20 poems per annual Competition. We also won’t accept complete manuscripts.
** Each poem will be assessed as originally submitted only. No subsequent editorial amendment or resubmission is permitted. No correspondence or discussion about amendments will be entered into. In the case of poems accepted for the website, the editors will correct any obvious typos, grammar or spelling mistakes where necessary.
Prizes
** Poets may win more than one cash prize across multiple language categories for multiple unique poems.
** AVBOB reserves the right, in conjunction with the Competition panel of judges, to withhold the prizes, or to reduce or split the prize money if, in their opinion, such action is justified for any reason.
Evaluation of Poems
** The decisions of the judging panel relating to this Competition are final and binding, and no subsequent correspondence will be entered into.
** The judging panel is not obliged to provide feedback or critical comment on individual entries.
** Entrants not selected for prizes or shortlisted are free to submit poems entered into the Competition for consideration elsewhere (i.e. to other Competitions or for publication) after November 2025.
FAQs
1. What is the topic or theme?
Entrants should see the theme “I wish I’d said” as a guideline, not a rule. The poems, however, need not be about the death of a specific person, but can be any poem with an elegiac sense.
Poems which celebrate life, or the brevity of human existence, etc., will also do. The guiding principle must be: Will a person experiencing loss be uplifted by the poem, or be able to identify with it?
2. To what guidelines must my poem conform?
To see what criteria your poem must meet, simply go to the Editorial guidelines section on this site.
3. How many poems may I enter?
Each poet will be restricted to entering a maximum of 20 poems per annual competition. A counter underneath the poetry entry button on your dashboard will show you how many poems you can still enter.
We also won’t accept complete manuscripts, or the same poem(s) translated and entered in more than one language category.
4. Will I receive feedback on the poem that I entered?
You will receive an official notification of entry via e-mail. Any feedback on a specific poem will be at the sole discretion of the editor.
5. How will the winners be notified?
The winners will be contacted via any of the contact details provided during submission of their entries, and their details will be made available on the AVBOB Poetry Competition website after the AVBOB Poetry Gala in mid-2025.