Competition
Spectator competition winners: A Kentish Lad
In Competition No. 3259, you were invited to submit a poem entitled ‘A(n) [insert county of your choice] Lad’. There…
Spectator competition winners: a postcard from Airstrip One
In Competition No. 3258, you were invited to submit a postcard sent while on holiday in a well-known fictional destination…
Spectator competition winners: filmericks
In Competition No. 3257, you were invited to summarise a film in limerick form. A nod to Ezra Haber Glenn,…
Spectator competition winners: famous poems rewritten as short stories
In Competition No. 3256, you were invited to take a well-known poem and recast it as a short story. Ben…
Spectator competition winners: poems about imperial measures
In Competition No. 3255, you were invited to submit a poem about imperial measures. Brian Bilston’s terrific poem ‘The Empire’s…
‘Poundland and Prejudice’: book titles tweaked for straitened times
In Competition No. 3254, you were invited to tweak a well-known book title to reflect the straitened times we live…
Spectator competition winners: What was Edgar Allen Poe created for?
In Competition No. 3253, you were invited to write a poem entitled ‘Song of Myself’ in the style of the…
Spectator competition winners: how not to write a letter of condolence
In Competition No. 3252, you were invited to write a letter of condolence on the mis-fortune of an acquaintance which,…
Spectator competition winners: Platinum Jubilee poems from Kipling and A.A. Milne
In Competition No. 3251, you were invited to submit a poem to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee in the style…
Spectator competition winners: sonnets on Mammon
In Competition No. 3250, you were invited to submit a sonnet to Mammon. It was ‘Epigram for Wall Street’, attributed…
Jacob Rees-Mogg does Mills & Boon
In Competition No. 3249, you were invited to submit an extract from a Mills & Boon novel whose central character…
Spectator competition winners: The last will and testament of Gollum
In Competition No. 3248, you were asked to submit the last will and testament of a fictional character. In a…
Spectator competition winners: If Alan Bennett had been a spy
In Competition No. 3247, you were asked to submit the reflections of a well-known writer on a career path they…
Spectator competition winners: poets bemoan a problematic appendage
In Competition No. 3246, you were invited to submit a poem in the style of the poet of your choice…
Spectator competition winners: Let’s parler Franglais
In Competition No. 3245, you were asked to take a passage from a classic of French literature and recast it…
Spectator competition winners: poems for St George in Bono-metrics
In Competition No. 3244, you were invited to submit a poem to mark St George’s Day that rivals in awfulness…
Spectator competition: poems about Shackleton’s Endurance
In Competition No. 3243, you were invited to submit a poem about the recent discovery of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance.…
Spectator competition winners: The polar bear who came to tea
In Competition No. 3242, you were asked to submit a short story that is a mash-up of cli-fi with a…
Spectator competition winners: spring triolets
In Competition No. 3241, you were invited to submit a spring triolet. Banjo Paterson, the bard of the bush, had…
Spectator competition winners: lives in three limericks
In Competition No. 3240, you were invited to tell the life story of a well-known figure in three limericks. In…
Spectator competition winners: political manifestos inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien and Lewis Carroll
In Competition No. 3239, you were invited to submit political manifestos inspired by literary heroes. Sajid Javid loves Ayn Rand:…
Spectator competition winners: poems about literary feuds
In Competition No. 3238, you were invited to submit a poem about a literary feud. Wallace Stevens’s 1936 fisticuffs with…
Spectator competition winners: Monosyllabic short stories
In Competition No. 3237, you were invited to submit a short story using words of only one syllable. This challenge…
Spectator competitions winners: ‘O, my love is like…’
In Competition No. 3236, you were invited to submit a poem that begins ‘Oh my love is like…’ . From…
Spectator competition winners: Gulliver’s Day Out and other literary prequels
In Competition No. 3235, you were invited to invent a prequel to a well-known work of literature and supply an…
