The Magpie Award for Poetry Closes Soon!

Less Than a Week to Go!

The 2026 Magpie Award for Poetry closes Wednesday, April 15th! Poets, this is your last chance to polish up your poems for a shot at the $500 top prize and publication in Pulp Literature.

For some inspiration, read the opening lines of last year’s winning poems by Pattie Palmer-Baker, Angela Rebrec, and Elizabeth Cockle here. Or pick up a copy of Issue 48, Autumn 2025 to read these poems in full.

What You Need to Know…

The Prize:

First Prize: $500 and publication in Issue 52, Autumn 2026
Runners up (2): $50 each and publication in Issue 52, Autumn 2026

The Details:

The Magpie Award for Poetry is for previously unpublished poems of up to 100 lines in length. Poetry that relies heavily on visual structure is eligible for prize money, but may be excluded from publication if the formatting is difficult to reproduce in print or eBook. No simultaneous submissions.

The Deal:

Entry fee: $35 for you 1st poem, $10 for each subsequent poem
All entry fees include a 1-year digital subscription to Pulp Literature.

The Dates:

Contest Closes: April 15th
Winner Announced: mid-May

Enter the Contest Here!

We wish you the best of luck and can’t wait to see what gems we find this year!

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Meet final judge, Renée Sarojini Saklikar

Renée Sarojini Saklikar is the author of five books, including the award-winning Children of Air India and Listening to the Bees. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in literary magazines and anthologies, including Exile Editions, Chatelaine, The Capilano Review, and Pulp Literature. She was Poet Laureate for the City of Surrey (2015–2018), co-founded Lunch Poems at SFU, and teaches creative writing at Douglas College. Bramah’s Discovery, the third volume of her epic fantasy in verse series, THOT J BAP, is forthcoming in 2026 with Nightwood Editions. She lives in East Vancouver.

We are so thrilled to have the wonderful Renée Sarojini Saklikar back this year as the final judge for our annual Magpie Award for Poetry! To find out what makes a poem stand out to Renée, read her judge’s commentary from last year’s winning  Magpies here.

With the Magpie closing on the 15th, April remains an exciting month with the third volume of Renée’s THOT J BAP series, Bramah’s Discovery launching on April 22nd! Help Renée to celebrate her book launch and join her from 7-9pm on the 22nd at The Irish Heather (248 E Georgia St) in Vancouver. For those in town, you can RSVP to the event here.

You can also find Renée in conversation with Zsuzsi Gartner at Iron Dog Books (2671 E Hastings St) in Vancouver on Thursday, May 21st at 7pm for an evening of celebration for Bramah’s Discovery! Find all the details and RSVP here.

We hope that you will join us in celebrating our amazing Magpie judge!