2025 TCK Publishing Poetry Awards Contest Winners

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We’ve just wrapped up our fifth annual Poetry Awards Contest, and we’re so excited to announce the winner for 2025!

Why We Started This Poetry Awards Contest

We decided to host the poetry awards contest as a way to support and empower poetry writers everywhere, regardless of their experience or background. When I won my first poetry awards contest at age 13, it forever changed the course of my life. I might never have become a writer or founded TCK Publishing without that contest.

I hope the TCK Publishing Poetry Awards contest can inspire and support other writers to pursue their dreams regardless of age, background, or nationality. In addition to the recognition from this contest, the Grand Prize winner will also receive a $1,000 honorarium.

You don’t need a creative writing degree or a Pulitzer Prize under your belt to be a poet. Anyone can pick up a pen or keyboard and create poetry. That’s why we set out to make this contest as accessible as possible by making it international and maintaining a very low entry fee.

This year we had a remarkably talented pool of several hundred writers with so many outstanding poems to choose from. While it is always a challenge to choose just one winner, we couldn’t be happier with the excellent submissions we received.

2025 Poetry Awards Grand Prize Winner

We’re pleased to announce that the Grand Prize winner of the 2025 TCK Publishing Poetry Awards is…

Veronica Hislop

and below is their winning poem:

Isis the Reclaimed

Goddess of the sacred Nile,

With eyes that blaze, full lips that smile.

Daughter of Earth, of endless Sky,

You taught the world to crawl, to fly.

You shone with the stars, you shaped the land,

You held the cosmos in your hand.

Queen of Spirit, Mind, and Fire,

You lit the torch and stood by the pyre.

But they erased you.

Picked apart stone by stone,

They smashed your crown,

Unmade your throne.

They broke your nose— destroyed your face,

To hide the truth, to mask your race.

To blind the world so we could not see.

The truth and the power of your legacy,

Your name was hushed, your story torn,

Your children left to weep and mourn.

The scrolls went silent, myths grew pale—

But still, your heartbeat shakes the veil.

ISIS—

Mother, Lover, Warrior, Guide,

The pulse of power that was denied.

They called it myth, they called it wrong,

But we have heard your ancient song.

Where is your temple, carved in grace?

Where is your voice, your sacred space?

Buried deep in time’s regret,

But we remember. We don’t forget.

We feel your loss in every womb

That’s been denied the right to bloom.

We feel your pain in silenced cries,

In weary hearts and watchful eyes.

But now—

The Tide comes in.

The wind has turned.

The fire within is fierce, unburned.

Your daughters rise with every breath,

They rebuke the lies, defying death.

ISIS—

We call your name, we claim your truth,

We raise our fists for stolen youth.

We stitch your stories into our skin,

And embrace your power again within

The age of forgetting ends with us.

You rise from ruin; you rise up from dust.

No longer bowed, no longer small—

glorifying your essence, we stand tall.

We bring a historical truth to your loss

Embracing the feminine within, we elicit pathos.

Because you are the root, the spark, the flame,

And we – your legacy, stand and reclaim

the ancient of powers to call your name.

Isis

The past may sleep, but not in vain—

For you are here to rise again.

Isis

You are here to rise.

Again.

Honorable Mentions

We had so many amazing submissions this year! Below, we’re proud to announce the Honorable Mentions for 2025:

The Best in the World

By Kate Earley

Y’ALL

By Kali Blackshear

The Woods

By Alistair Birch

Rise

By Jane Seddon

Slaughter Your Scapegoats

By Anna Paddick

What’s Next

The 2026 TCK Publishing Poetry Awards Contest is now open for early submissions.

If you’re interested in more posts about writing contests, then you might also like: