Love Letters to London has become a much loved annual competition which attracts hundreds of entries every year.
If you would like to receive information about how to enter the competition sign up here and we will add you to our mailing list.
To see last year's winners (and download or order their entries and those of the runners up) go here.
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”.
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.
If you want to walk away with one of the four first prizes of £500 - and see your work published by the London Society - get writing your own ‘Love Letter to London’.
Thanks to our sponsors Almacantar, Harriet’s Trust, Stiff + Trevillion who are supporting us for the third year running.
The prizes for the 'Open' and 'Poetry' categories will be as follows:
The prizes for the '11 and under' and '12-18' categories will be as follows:
In addition, the school of the two category winners will receive £250 of books.
Graham Clifford is proud to call himself a Londoner. He is a prize winning poet, published by Seren, Against the Grain and BLER.
Graham has a MA in creative writing from UEA and is a Head teacher. His work has been featured widely, nationally and internationally, in such magazines and anthologies as the Rialto, Anthropocene, Broken Sleep Books and Magma; he has won or been commended in awards and competitions such as the Arvon, Bridport and Forward poetry prizes.
Dave Hill is the founder, publisher and editor of the website OnLondon.co.uk, which covers the capital’s politics, development and culture. He was previously The Guardian’s award-winning London commentator. His most recent book is Olympic Park: When Britain Built Something Big.
Gita Ralleigh is a poet, writer and doctor born to Indian immigrant parents in London. She teaches creative writing to science undergraduates at Imperial College and has an MA in Creative Writing and an MSc in Medical Humanities. Her poetry books are A Terrible Thing
(Bad Betty Press, 2020) and
Siren (Broken Sleep Books, 2022). Her debut children’s novel The Destiny Of Minou Moonshine was published by Zephyr/Bloomsbury in July 2023.
You can find her on Twitter as @storyvilled and on Instagram as @gita_ralleigh
Almacantar is a property investment company specialising in large-scale, complex developments in Central London. Known for its design-led approach, the company focuses on creating long-term value through development, repositioning or active asset management.
Since it was launched in 2010 by Mike Hussey, Almacantar has acquired over 1.5 million sq ft of prime assets in the heart of London including live projects; Centre Point, Marble Arch Place, One and Two Southbank Place and Lyons Place.
Stiff+Trevillion are a well-established West London practice with a strong reputation for elegant and sophisticated architecture. Collaboration is at the heart of the practice's ethos. The studio employs a diverse team of architects, technicians, visualisers, interior and furniture designers. This blend of skills reflects the work we do across the commercial, restaurant & retail and private residential sectors and creates a lively and vibrant working culture.
Please read the full rules (The rules may be downloaded here.)
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:
The prizes for the 'Open' and 'Poetry' categories will be as follows:
The prizes for the '11 and under' and '12-18' categories will be as follows:
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:
For enquiries, email curator@londonsociety.org.uk
We look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Please read thoroughly. The rules may be downloaded here.
