Bright Ideas Bursary Submission Form - Poetry Day Ireland 2026

Bring your Poetry Day project to life with the Bright Ideas bursary!

Poetry Ireland invites submissions for Bright Ideas for Poetry Day Ireland 2026, which will take place on Thursday, 28th May, with the theme, 'Home'.

Bright Ideas bursary is designed to support and enable individuals, groups, producers, venues and arts organisations to present and promote creative events and projects celebrating poetry across the island on the 28th May 2026. Applicants are invited to draw inspiration from the theme to propose events and projects that aim to engage and inspire audiences with poetry.

The theme for Poetry Day Ireland 2026 is "Home", a theme that is significant as poetry has a new ‘home’ on the island as Poetry Ireland returns to No. 11 Parnell Square. This year’s Poetry Day Ireland should also reflect on the concept of home as one of the greatest issues and predominant themes of our times.People are invited to draw inspiration from the theme. We encourage event registrations from all counties and for all age groups, welcoming a diverse range of ways to engage with poetry.

Please note that our budgets are limited and awarded funding will be dependent on scale, ambition and demand. Indicative levels of support, based on a range of €300 to €500 maximum. 

Please refer to Pay scale information for writers when submitting your application as outlined below.

Closing date for applications Thursday April 23rd at 5pm.

Submission Eligibility / Guidelines:

• Individuals, groups, collectives, or organisations may apply.

• It is beneficial to your submission if you can demonstrate that you will be partnering with a venue, with others artists or writers, or with arts organisation.

• We want to see creative ideas that engage new audiences with poetry in imaginative ways. We encourage cross-disciplinary events, and unexpected crossovers are particularly welcome. Have an idea that involves poetry and dance, or poetry and pottery, or poetry and gardening or cycling or cooking or hiking? We are all ears.

• Proposals are accepted for all types of events, initiatives, broadcasts or digital programmes as long as they are accessible to a public audience on the island of Ireland

• The event or initiative should be loosely based on this year's theme 'Home'

• The event or initiative must take place on Poetry Day Ireland, Thursday 28th May 2026.

•  Successful projects will be required to adhere to our Partnerships & Funding Requirements. 

• The application form must be completed in full.

Successful projects will be promoted by Poetry Ireland and listed on poetryday.ie as part of the Poetry Day Ireland 2026 programme, with promotional materials created as part of this.

Previous Bright Ideas Examples:

• In 2021, Deep Routes Poetry Exchange paired a number of young writers with each other, who were tasked with telling the other their life story, and their partner was tasked with retelling the story through a poem.

• One Step at a Time in partnership with the Gaiety School of Acting was an immersive poetry walk which invited listeners to walk around their locality to the tune of a curated poetry playlist connected to the listener's surroundings.

• In 2019, poets were invited to tie luggage tags of short poems around their locale for random passersby to stumble upon, which together created the LabeLLit Digi M’app, an online sound map of poems.

Have some questions? 

If you're wondering if your event is eligible, or have any queries before registerring, please feel free to email our communications and marketing manager Eleanor on media@poetryireland.ie