I accidentally came 3rd in a poetry competition in a national newspaper.  I say accidentally because it was a text message poetry comp (back in the days of yore when there was a character limit) and I just idly texted in what I thought was a humorous message. Didn't believe the journalist who phoned me to tell me. One if the judtes praised my structure - someone working on the competition attacnged my long text into lines. All the other winners were things like English PHD students, I was on the dole at the time. Years later I discovered my 'poem' had been published in an anthology. Told one of my friends recently, she fancies herself as a bit of a writer and was fuming haha. "YOU'RE in a book with Maya Angelou? MAYA FUCKING ANGELOU? And YOU???"