From the Book of Genesis, to greetings cards, therapy and even abusive notes pinned to a workplace door, poetry is the ultimate human expression. You don’t need equipment, facilities or collaborators and it’s cheap.
At times of trauma and grief, we turn to poetry. When we’re looking for meaning or truth, we turn to poetry. When we’re trying to sell breakfast cereal, we turn to poetry.
So, it’s fitting then that, after five years of fighting the good fight in the cause of truth, the Bylines Network is proud to announce the results of its first national poetry competition.
Bylines Network Sky Hawkins poetry prize 2025
This is the first year the Bylines Network has run this competition, and the standard of entries was excellent. We are passionate about platforming voices that might otherwise go unheard, and this nationwide poetry prize is another way of living that mission.
We named our prize after Sky Hawkins, a poet, performer and facilitator from North East England, who died in April 2025. Her sudden loss was felt as strongly by fellow poets, friends and family as it was by the women’s groups, youth services, and projects she worked with.
Drawing on personal experience, Sky’s engaging and entertaining work won multiple slams, awards, and commissions. She was passionate about enabling citizens to share their voice, and devoted two decades to working in marginalised communities, helping others speak their truth.
In her words: “The Moon shivered under her cloud, whilst the stars cast words of hope.”
Esteemed judges Ian McMillan and Kate Fox
The shortlisting panel’s job was tough, given the sheer number of entries the competition attracted, but a shortlist of ten was then passed on to judges Ian McMillan and Kate Fox, two of the UK’s best-known poets, who have now chosen their winner.
Ian McMillan is known nationally as the Bard of Barnsley and Barnsley FC’s Poet in Residence, but I feel this does him a disservice. I can’t think of a living poet whose work has such breadth of style, form and technique. His work spans poetry, prose, and plays for both adults and children but his ‘serious’ poems are too often overlooked. His collection To Fold the Evening Star is possibly my all-time favourite. A frequent presence on television, BBC radio (where he presents Radio 4’s The Verb), and in the press, he was recently ranked the 22nd most influential person in radio.
Kate Fox is a North Yorkshire-based poet, comedian, and writer who regularly appears on Radio 4’s The Verb and has created two comedy series for the station. She has been Poet in Residence at both the Glastonbury Festival and the Great North Run, and holds a PhD in stand-up comedy. A former judge for the Forward Poetry Prizes, she is also a neurodiversity advocate, with her latest show Bigger on the Inside linking neurodiversity to themes from Doctor Who.
Praise from the Bylines Network
As the network’s managing director Ben Dickenson explains, the breadth of topics and styles was particularly pleasing:
“The entries moved, inspired and surprised us in all the right ways. We got poems about Gaza, as you might expect, but also material which focused in on life’s individual challenges and traumas which are, at the same time, universal and intense on a different level.”
Ian and Kate will be announcing their chosen winner at a special live stream event, taking place 6pm on Wednesday 27 August. The livestream will be on the Bylines Network’s YouTube channel.
