

DEREK SELLEN
recent news: a poem has been shortlisted in the Edward Thomas Poetry Competition 2024/2025
poems accepted for the podcast 'Poems Worth Hearing' on Spotify December 2024 and March 2025
Haikus published on Wild Fire Words website
successes
Poems that have won First Prizes in International Competitions
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Against Cartography in O Bheal Five Words 2024
The Tailor in Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 2023
The Night Bus in Poets Meet Painters 2023
'Jaunty Red Rabbit' in Poetry on the Lake Haiku Competition 2023
Layla in Anthony Cronin Award 2020
Betty Fox is Skipping in O Bheal Five Words 2020
Feeding the Labyrinth in Canterbury Festival PotY 2018
Aesop in Poetry Pulse 2017
Survivor in O Bheal Five Words 2015
Ja-Kyung Oh at the Organ in Poets Meet Politics 2014
The Siege of Canterbury: Three Voices in SaveAs 2011
Checkdigit in Canterbury Festival
Othello in Cinnamon Press competition
The Honey Bucket Man in Rhyme International
The Hair in Love Poems Competition
Black in
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The first poet to win the O'Bheal Five Words international competition three times (2015, 2020 and 2024) and to win Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year International Competition twice (2018 and 2023)
Poems have won prizes in:
Poetry on the Lake, The National Poetry Competition, Sentinel Quarterly Competition, Artemisia Arts, Vole Books, Sentinel Annual, Penfro, Richmond Roger McGough Competition, Scanning the Century, SaveAs Jane Austen Competition, Canterbury Festival PotY x 2, Wirral Poetry Competition, Crewe Waltraud, Barnet Magna Carta Competition, Salopian, Poetry Kit, Edward Thomas Poetry Competition, Pen Nib, and elsewhere
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Poems have been highly commended/commended, shortlisted in:
Poetry on the Lake, The Plough, Sentinel Quarterly, Poetry Kit, Cheltenham Festival, Fish Poetry, SaveAs Writers, Artemisia Arts, Wirral Festival, Canterbury Festival PotY x 8, Poets Meet Politics x 2, O Bheal Five Words x 3, Wells, Barnet, Four Corners, Oxford, Sotheby’s International, Early Works, Making Waves, Norwich Writers, Frogmore x 3, Cinnamon Press Pamphlet, Woodman’s Press, Anthony Cronin, Acumen, Yaffle Press, Edward Thomas Competition and elsewhere