AN ACCLAIMED poet has thrown down the gauntlet for keen writers entering this year's Bridport Prize competition.

Roger McGough, one of Britain's best-loved poets and presenter of BBC Radio 4's Poetry Please, is challenging writers to pen a poem that he wishes he had written himself.

Roger will judge this year's poetry entries - with award-winning writers Jane Rogers, David Gaffney and Jane Feaver picking the best entries in the fiction categories.

"I'm looking forward to receiving poems that I wish I had written, poems that rhyme, although they don't have to, poems that are mysterious" said Roger.

"It takes courage to write poems and send them in. I look forward to reading them."

The Bridport Prize is one of the best-known open writing competitions in the English language, meaning both new and established writers can submit work.

The competition offers top prizes of £5,000 in the poetry category, £1,000 for flash fiction and £1,000 plus up to a year's mentoring from project partners, The Literary Consultancy, for the winners of the Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a first novel.

The winning poems, short stories and flash fiction stories will be published in a winners anthology in the autumn and the winner and runner-up in the novel award will have their opening chapters published on the Bridport Prize website.

Kate Wilson, prize administrator for the Bridport Prize, said: "I think Roger McGough's challenge will really appeal to writers as to have someone say 'I wish I'd written that' is the highest praise you could wish for.

"If the winning poems are ones Roger would like to have written himself, it will be a true accolade for the writers.

"I would encourage any writer who is thinking of entering the Bridport Prize competition to have a go. Winning, being highly commended, short-listed or long-listed in a writing competition is a tremendous boost.

"Competitions are often springboards to other things and the testaments we get from previous winners who have gone on to get agents and publish work are proof that winning an award with the Bridport Prize can lead to great things."

Entry for the competition closes on Sunday, May 31. Entries can be made online at bridportprize.org.uk