THE WORK OF THE
BLACK CAT POETRY PRESS
A small independent press based in Kent, England. We publish first collections, pamphlets and anthologies.
If you'd like to get in touch email us on contact@blackcatpress.co.uk
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Please note that from 1st July 2021, shipments from the UK to EU will be subject to VAT. There is a possibility that customers in the EU may have to pay import VAT.​
LATEST COMPETITION
Some moments burst out of the ether and change everything in a flash. Others slip by silently, their impact only apparent in retrospect. Our new competition invites poems inspired by TURNING POINTS on any scale, from the personal and historical to the environmental and cosmological. Send us your poems of before and after, of yes/no/didn’t have a choice, of giant leaps and first footsteps, of blind corners and forks in the road, of inventions and extinctions, of big bangs and subtle shifts, of epiphanies and if onlys, of burnt bridges and open doors. Poems in any form are welcome, and form is your friend: in the space between stanzas or the turn of a line, eras can end or begin; things are said or done after which nothing is quite the same again.
Competition judge Rebecca Watts is the author of three poetry collections, The Met Office Advises Caution (2016), Red Gloves (2020) and The Face in the Well (2025), and editor of Elizabeth Jennings: New Selected Poems (2019), all published by Carcanet. She currently lives in Cambridge, where she works in a library and as a freelance editor and tutor.
Poems are £3 to enter. Please enter up to 3 poems. Please pay via PayPal contact@blackcatpress.co.uk. Please quote the PayPal reference when submitting your poems via the same email address. The overall winner will receive a cash prize of £100 and all longlisted poems will be eligible for inclusion in the anthology. The launch will be attended by Rebecca.
The fee is to cover competition costs however if it will preclude you from entering please let us know on submission and we’ll waive the fee.
Entries close 30th September 2025 at midnight.
​SUBMISSIONS
We are open for pamphlet submissions of up to 40 pages of poetry and first poetry collections of up to 60 pages of poetry during the month of October each year. Please do not send submissions outside of this window as they will not be read. We aim to respond within 6 weeks after the submission window has closed however we are a small press so please give us a nudge if you haven't heard back in this time.
Please send up to 10 poems of your manuscript in word to contact@blackcatpress.co.uk. Please include an introduction of yourself and your book in the body of the email. If your work is a good fit we will ask you to share the full manuscript.
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We are interested in all subjects but have a particular interest in eco poetry. We are not interested in poetry that is bigoted in any way.
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We hold regular competitions. Information and results can be found on our social media pages.