The Stephen Spender Prize 2026 poetry translation competition is open for entries by the deadline of 31st July. This is an annual competition to translate into English any published poem from any language (including sign language), with a chance to win cash prizes and publication. There is an individual Youth Prize, Schools Laureate prize, Teacher Laureate Prize and the Polish Spotlight prize. Entrants must be UK or Irish citizens or residents, or pupils at a British School overseas.
The competition is free to enter for all schools in the UK and Ireland, with age categories from primary to sixth form. It has a dedicated strand for teachers submitting on behalf of pupils, the Schools Laureate Prize, which welcomes up to 5 entries per age category from each participating school.
Students can pick a poem from any language to translate, or choose one from the 50+ languages in the Schools Laureate Prize poem bank. This year there’s also a special language focus with the Polish Spotlight, with pupils invited to translate a poem from the specially curated selection in the Polish Spotlight booklet.
To accompany their translations, students are invited to submit a creative response in the form of a written, video or audio commentary, a performance of their translated poem, or an original artwork or piece of creative writing inspired by the poem.
Ready to get started? Visit the Prize’s Guide for Teachers page for all the key information about the prize at a glance, and explore the Stephen Spender Prize Resources hub for Teaching Resources and Student Resources to guide you and your pupils through every step of entering the prize.
It isn’t just pupils who can enter! Teachers can also try their hand at translation with the free Teacher Laureate Prize, open to all teachers at participating schools, for the chance to win an annual subscription to Modern Poetry in Translation magazine and a creative translation workshop for their school during the next academic year.
If you’d like to get involved, you can register via the form here to join the Stephen Spender Prize teacher mailing list, or get in touch with any questions at prize@stephen-spender.org.
