Competition
Pop culture
In Competition No. 3205, you were invited to supply a rigorous literary-critical analysis of a well-known pop song. Thanks to…
Let’s go round again
In Competition No. 3204, you were invited to supply a rondeau with a summery theme. The best-known English rondeau is…
The third way
In Competition No. 3203, you were invited to supply an extract from the newly discovered Shakespeare play Charles III. I…
Lost love
In Competition No. 3202, you were invited to replace the word ‘love’ in a well-known book title of your choice…
Commercial gain
In Competition No. 3201, a contest inspired by Salman ‘naughty but nice’ Rushdie, you were invited to submit advertising copy…
Canterbury revisited
In Competition No. 3200, you were invited to retell one of Chaucer’s tales in the style of another author. The…
I spy
In Competition No. 3199, you were invited to supply a poem in which an inanimate object comments on its owner’s…
Now we are rich
In Competition No. 3198, you were invited to supply an extract from a children’s book that is designed to explain…
In memoriam
In Competition No. 3197, you were invited to supply a poem to mark the death of Prince Philip. I wondered…
Answering back
In Competition No. 3196, you were invited to supply a reply to the poet from Frances Cornford’s fat woman or…
Make mine a double
In Competition No. 3195, you were invited to submit an extract from the racier, mass-market version of a well-known literary…
Tutti frutti
In Competition No. 3194, a nod to Keats and Tony Harrison, you were invited to write a poem about a…
Rhymes royal
In Competition No. 3193 you were invited to submit clerihews (two couplets, AABB, metrically clunky, humorous in tone) on members…
Beastly
In Competition No. 3192 you were invited to submit a short story that features an animal (or animals) taking revenge…
Cancel culture
In Competition No. 3191 you were invited to submit a Shakespearean soliloquy reflecting on the news that the Bard has…
First and worst
In Competition No. 3190 you were invited to submit the first paragraph of your least favourite type of novel. Sci-fi…
Heaven scent
In Competition No. 3189 you were invited to submit a poem about a favourite smell. This challenge certainly seemed to…
No place like home
In Competition No. 3188, a challenge designed to make us all feel better about the looming prospect of another enforced…
Wave power
In Competition No. 3187 you were asked to provide a sea shanty on a topical theme. This challenge was an…
Mixed messages
In Competition No. 3186 you were invited to supply an acrostic poem praising or dispraising a public figure, in which…
The state we’re in
In Competition No. 3185 you were invited to compose a sonnet called ‘England in 2021’. The challenge was inspired by…
Laughter lines
In Competition No. 3184 you were invited to tell a joke in verse form. This challenge, suggested by a reader…
Adverbial
In Competition No. 3183 you were invited to submit a short story entitled ‘My Year of Living [insert adverb of…
Over to the dark side
In Competition No. 3182 you were invited to rewrite a famous piece of light verse with a dirge-like, hieratic tone…
Naysayers
In Competition No. 3181 you were invited to submit a letter by a publisher rejecting a well-known literary classic. The…
