On November 1st, Wolverhampton Literature Festival opens its poetry competition to poets from across the globe for the fifth consecutive year.

Last year’s competition was the most successful to date, and organisers say this has allowed them to increase the amount given out in prizes.

This year, the value of the three 3rd prizes goes up from £25 to £50 and there's also a new prize category for poems sent in by people living in a WV postcode. These poems will be eligible for the main prizes, but in addition one WV poem will win £75, with two more getting runners-up prizes of £25.

The 2022 festival takes place over the weekend of 4-6 February, and the theme for both the festival and the competition is ‘sounds of the city’. A spokesperson for the event said:

"We want people to take us to the market, offer us a high street haiku, send us sagas about drunks singing their way home - just surprise us with what the sounds of the city mean to you!

"Poems will be read, and winners chosen, by our judge Casey Bailey, a writer, performer and educator born and raised in Nechells, Birmingham, and current Birmingham Poet Laureate.

For more information, you can visit wolvesliteraturefestival.co.uk. Entries should be submitted before December 31st.