The Brian Nisbet Poetry Award

19/06/2026

Huge congratulations to Bernard Briggs, Brian Thomson, and Katherine Regan for their success in the 10th Annual Brian Nisbet Poetry Award.
Bernard won first prize, Brian took the Doric first, and Katherine took second. They faced strong competition and the judges felt their poems were outstanding.
We are delighted to announce that the theme for the 11th Annual BN Poetry Award will be (drum roll please….) Wonder!
Last year was a bumper year with well over 150 entries and we hope to have even more this year. Watch our social media for details of how to send your poem in when the submission window opens in October.
For now - there’s a whole summer to get those imaginations working and start thinking about what “wonder” means to you.
Congratulations again to our previous winners!

10/06/2026

Please do join us at Orb's Bookshop for this!

On Thursday June 18th we’re hosting a special poetry event. We’ll be hearing work from the adult winners of The Brian Nisbet Poetry Award 2025 and awarding them their prizes as we announce the theme for 2026.
Just us for some amazing poetry at 3.30pm in the bookshop.

13/02/2026

We had a wonderful afternoon at The Gordon Schools yesterday for the prizegiving for The Brian Nisbet Poetry Award.
Such a high standard of poetry that pupils from the school swept the board in all of their age groups and categories.
We’ll be arranging a prizegiving of the adults very soon. Thank you so much for your patience about the weather delays!

And the winners are….

Huge congratulations to all of the winners of the Brian Nisbet Poetry Award - and the Brian Nisbet Doric Poetry Prize.
The standard of poetry this year was incredibly high. The judges had well over a hundred poems to read. The young poets of Huntly showed such talent and pupils of the Gordon Schools swept the board!
The judging team were so impressed by some wonderful Doric poetry and they wanted to celebrate this by also awarding a Doric Prize in each age category.

All of the winning poems will be shared on these pages over the coming weeks, and in a booklet in the new year.

The formal prizegiving will be held in the New Year.

Congratulations everyone!

10/12/2025

And the winners are….

Huge congratulations to all of the winners of the Brian Nisbet Poetry Award - and the Brian Nisbet Doric Poetry Prize.
The standard of poetry this year was incredibly high. The judges had well over a hundred poems to read. The young poets of Huntly showed such talent and pupils of the Gordon Schools swept the board!
The judging team were so impressed by some wonderful Doric poetry and they wanted to celebrate this by also awarding a Doric Prize in each age category.

All of the winning poems will be shared on these pages over the coming weeks, and in a booklet in the new year.

The formal prizegiving will be held in the New Year.

Congratulations everyone!

08/12/2025

We will be live on Orb's Bookshop page on Weds 10th December to announce the winners of the 2025 Brian Nisbet Poetry Award!
Watch the live stream and find out who has won this year.

On Weds 10th December at 6.30 pm we will have a very special announcement LIVE on our page.
Dawn McLachlan (lead judge of the Brian Nisbet Poetry Award) will be sharing the announcement of the winners of the 2025 Award!
Join us live online for this very special announcement.
There will be a press release the following day - but to find out first follow our page!

05/12/2025

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the 10th annual Brian Nisbet Poetry Award. We were so overwhelmed with the number of entries this year that we’re having to apologise for being a bit late with our winner’s announcement.
The judges wanted to make sure that every poem had the attention it deserved and with almost a hundred poems to read it’s taken us longer than usual.
We’re making the announcement very soon.
Thanks again for your patience!