Submit To Love Letters To London 2023

Love Letters to London returns for its third year with thousands of pounds in cash prizes . Dust off the keyboard or get tapping on your mobile

Love Letters To London Contest 2023

Love Letters to London returns for its third year with thousands of pounds in cash prizes . Dust off the keyboard or get tapping on your mobile, because there is more than £4,000 of prizes in the London Society’s free to enter writing competition “Love Letters to London”.

About Love Letters To London Contest 2023

Now in its third year, this competition is open to everyone to celebrate our wonderful, fantastic, infuriating city in prose or poetry. 

Open to all ages, and to all writing styles - fiction, poetry, essays and reportage - whether you live in the capital or not. There are special categories for under 18s, as well as prizes for schools.

The theme this year is: Love Letters to London of the Future.

What does your London of the future look like – what are your passions, hopes, dreams and aspirations for this most wonderful of cities?

The closing date for entries is midday (UK time) December 1st 2023, and prizes will be presented at an awards ceremony next Spring.

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Submission Guidelines For Love Letters To London 2023

Tell us why you love this city. Write a Love Letter to London of up to 500 words.

Entries are to be around the theme of “Love Letters to London of the Future” and can be about any aspect of London’s past, present or future. It can be reportage, an historical essay, a ‘think piece’, a spot of futurology, a work of fiction, a poem. 

We are open to all forms and styles.

There are four categories:

• Aged 11 and under
• 12-18 year olds
• Open - all other entrants

• Poetry

The prizes for the 'Open' and 'Poetry' categories will be as follows:

Category winner £500

Category second £250

Category third £100

The prizes for the '11 and under' and '12-18' categories will be as follows:

Category winner £500

Four runners up prizes of £150 each

In addition, the school of the two category winners will receive £250 of books.

Entries must be on a Word or Google Docs file with title (no PDFs). 

All entries will be judged anonymously, so the first page of the entry must have:

• the title of your entry, 
• the category you are entering, 
• your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address
• entrants for the two under-18 categories should also include the name of their school or college

For enquiries, email curator@londonsociety.org.uk 

Competition Rules

The competition is open to anyone aged under 18 (‘11 and under’ and ‘12-18’ categories) and 18 or over at the time of entering (‘open’ and ‘poetry’ categories). International entries are welcome.

All entries must have a title and must not exceed 500 words or for poems 40 lines in length (excluding title). Entries are to be around the theme of “Love Letters to London of the Future” on can be about any aspect of London’s past, present or future. It can be reportage, an historical essay, a ‘think piece’, a spot of futurology, a work of fiction, a poem.

Entries must be the entrant’s original work.

Entries can have been published elsewhere but must fit the brief and have been written in 2023.

The closing date of the competition is noon (UK time), 1 December 2023.

Entries must be a Word or Google Docs file with title (no PDFs). All entries will be judged anonymously, so the first page of the entry should have the title of your entry, and your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address.

There is a limit of three on the number of entries a single entrant can make.

No one can win more than one category.

Entries will not be returned, so please keep a copy.

Under no circumstances can alterations be made to the pieces once entered.

Online entries should be sent to curator@londonsociety.org.uk

Telephone or email confirmation of receipt is not available. The London Society is unable to confirm the content of documents submitted online or by post, so please ensure you send the correct version.

Online entries are preferred, but postal entries may be sent to:

Love Letters Competition, The London Society, Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London N1 7ED

The competition organisers reserve the right to change the judging panel without notice and not to award prizes if, in the judges’ opinion, such an action is justified.

All entries are read, The decision of the judges is final; neither the judges nor The London Society will enter into any correspondence.

No one associated with running the Competition, or a Trustee of The London Society, can enter the competition.

Copyright in all entries will remain with the entrant, but The London Society has the right to use any entry for free in its own publications in print, online or in other media.

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