2025 Winners

Congratulations to our winners and commended entries this year. These poets and poems stood out among hundreds of entries - our most-contested year to date, by some margin. We are grateful to every writer who sent us work, and everyone who donated to our prize fund. If you too find something to appreciate in the poems you read here, please share them with credit to the writers!

This year's Dead Cat Poetry Prize is dedicated to Jax, Katie, Angel, Choppy, Mally, Molly, Tinky, Tiger, Bramble, Buster, Pati, Bug, Socks, Sims, Pesh, Woody, Kato, Ripley, Roula, Spido, Baba Ghanoush, Moggy Moo, Scout, Nico, Yoyo, Monty, Timania, Catherine’s stuffed tabby cat, Jimmy, Ringo, Muffin, Mitchell, Rusty, Tia, Taffy, Lissie, Pickles (aka Pig), Magnus, Magnus, Snowball, Evanesco, Mujo the Magnificent of Macedonia, Professor George de Katte, Mower, Foxy, Casper, Trinket, Ronnie, Esau and Jacob.

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FIRST PRIZE (£100): 'Sister Cat' by Rose Schierig 🏆

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SECOND PRIZE (£50): 'The Dead Cat' by Lightfoot Treadwell 🏵

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THIRD PRIZE (£25): 'dead cat taught me displacement' by Luke Horsey 🥉

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COMMENDED:

'Tumbril' by Michelle Lovric

'Forearm' by Sara Arabzadeh

'arrival' by Jennifer Choi

'Plum (the name of the cat)' by Hazel Rogers

'Do Not Resuscitate' by Charlotte Pannell

'Snapshot' by Rachel Maloney

'Tchéru' by Michelle Dumont

'On bruising' by Zoe Price

'the walled-off cats' by Michelle Lovric

'Tail' by Freya Scott Broomfield

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Image by ZAIDoo Pro from Pixabay