Poetry Society Member Mary Wight, from Melrose, is the winner of the 2019 Federation of Writers (Scotland) Vernal Equinox poetry competition, judged by Stephen Watt, FWS Makar for 2019. Stephen said of Mary’s winning poem, ‘Fish’ “I found this vibrant, eavesdropping poem incredibly endearing as it rotated like a slideshow with images of friendship, romance, […]

Congratulations to Damen O’Brien, winner of the 2019 Welsh Poetry Competition for his poem ‘The Map-Maker’s Tale’. This year’s judge was Mike Jenkins, winner of Wales Book of the Year in 1998 and former editor of Poetry Wales. Mike said of Damon’s poem: “it creates in such a short space, a world you inhabit, albeit […]

CONGRATULATIONS! to Poetry Society Member Val Ormrod (who also won the Ware Poetry Competition recently), this year’s winner of the Magic Oxygen Literary Prize for her poem ‘The Gathering’.  Success too for Jonathan Greenhause who came third for ‘My Coworker Calls Out Sick’. Jonathan won an Aesthetica Creative Writing Award last year. Samantha Martin was […]

To celebrate Stowe as a place of creative inspiration, the National Trust have appointed Poetry Society Member Dan Simpson as Poet-in-Residence. Dan will be writing in response to Stowe’s Grecian valley, Capability Brown’s first known landscape design, which is scattered with monumentally large temples. This summer, he will be helping to create a new tour […]

We’re delighted to hear that Poetry Society Member Malika Booker is one of four recipients this year of a Cholmondeley Award for outstanding contribution to poetry. Joining Malika on this prestigious list are Fred D’Aguiar, Allen Fisher and Jamie McKendrick. Each poet receives £2,100. Malika Booker is a poet and multi-disciplinary artist of Guyanese and Grenadian […]

The Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast has announced the shortlist for the 2019 Poetry Prize for full first collection. The winner will be announced during the Seamus Heaney Centre’s annual Poetry Summer School, at the Awards Night on Tuesday 2nd July 2019, No Alibis Bookstore, Botanic Avenue, Belfast. Congratulations to the three Poetry […]

Poetry Society Member Amy Evans Bauer has won joint first prize in the inaugural Jonathan Williams Chapbook Prize in the US for her chapbook and umbels, judged by Lee Ann Brown and Evan Gray. Her chapbook will appear with Shirt Pocket Press, US, later this year.  Judge Evan Gray writes: “and umbels is a melody […]

Poetry Society Member Anna Kisby has won the Binsted Prize for her poem ‘Five Times Raccoon’. The competition had no theme and was part of the South Downs Poetry Festival, judged by James Simpson. Anna is Research Associate on a writing collaboration between a historian, a playwright and a poet (Anna): Creative Histories of Witchcraft […]

The winner of the Strokestown International Poetry Prize is Majella Kelly from Co. Galway, Ireland with her poem ‘Virginia Creeper’. This year’s judges were Jo Shapcott and Gerard Smyth. Congratulations to Majella and the other winners – Poetry Society Member Rebecca Farmer (second) and Keith Payne (third). Among the ten-strong shortlist were Poetry Society Members […]

The winner of the inaugural Brotherton Poetry Prize, organised by Leeds University, is Dane Holt, a PhD researcher at Queen’s University Belfast. Among the runners-up were Poetry Society Members Pete Green and Maeve Henry, as well as Majella Kelly and Robyn Maree Pickens. The choice was unanimous among the judges, including Poet Laureate (and Professor […]

The Roehampton prize for the best poetry collection of the year has been awarded to Fiona Benson for her collection Vertigo & Ghost, published by Jonathan Cape – described by David Harsent as  “a deep and compassionate engagement with human love and fear. No reader could leave this book unaffected or unchanged.” Congratulations to Poetry […]

Congratulations to Poetry Society Members S K Kim, Nick On, and Emma Simon who have been announced as the winners of the 2018/2019 Poetry Business International Book and Pamphlet Competition, alongside Hilary Menos – as chosen by Neil Astley, Michael Schmidt, and Amy Wack. “Good luck to all the authors and a shout-out for the […]

The longlists for The Polari Prize and Polari First Book Prize have been announced, with Poetry Society Member Andrew McMillan among the contenders alongside fellow poets Richard Scott and Sophia Blackwell. Now in its ninth year, the Prize recognises writers whose work explores the LGBT experience, whether in poetry, prose, fiction or non-fiction. New to […]

l to r: Kathryn Bevis, Lauren Garland, Anna Kisby Kei Miller has selected Poetry Society Member Kathryn Bevis as the winner of the Poets & Players poetry competition. In fact, all but one of the winners are Poetry Society Members, with Lauren Garland and Anna Kisby completing the top three, and Lydia Harris winning an […]

Over 1200 poems were received by the judge, Maggie Butt, of this year’s Ware Poets 2019 Open Poetry Competition and the eventual winner was Poetry Society Member Val Ormrod for her poem ‘Footsteps’. Fellow Members Doreen Hinchliffe and Jenny Mitchell shared the Third prize.  Congratulations, too, to all the Poetry Society Members who were Commended… […]

This year’s judge, Brian Moses, has commended poems by Poetry Society Members Carole Bromley and Cheryl Moskowitz in this year’s Caterpillar Poetry Prize, won by Andrew Weale and his poem ‘Wonder-pudderful’. The prize is for a single unpublished poem written by an adult for children (aged 7–11). Previous winners include Laura Mucha, Louise Greig and […]

All the Bleak Chippies by R T A Parker is the winner of this year’s Ledbury Poetry Competition, judged by Nia Davies: “The winners and runners up were the poems that, as well as taking a sideways glance at a subject, also stretched and invigorated language and the form of the poem itself. And they […]

CONGRATULATIONS! to Janet Lees, Poetry Society Member and former Stanza Rep for Isle of Man – winner of the Frosted Fires First Pamphlet competition. Janet will receive 50 copies of her pamphlet A Bag of Sky when it is published on 30 October. In spring 2020, she will be a headline poet reading at Cheltenham […]

Congratulations to the Prole Laureate winners, 2019. All entries were judged ‘blind’ by judge, Stuart A Paterson. Among the winners are Poetry Society Members Steve May (runner-up and Commended), and Damon Young (Commended). First Prize went to Vicky Morris who wins £200 and publication in issue 28 of Prole magazine. Prole is a print magazine that […]

Congratulations to Poetry Society Members Leo Boix and Sarah Doyle, first and second in this year’s Keats-Shelley Prize for poetry, with Tammy Armstrong and Sarah Stewart also sharing second place. The theme this year was ‘Wandering’ or ‘Fiery Dust’ – to mark the publication in 1819 of the first two cantos of Lord Byron’s controversial […]

Poetry Society Member Philip Gross is one of five poets on the CLiPPA (Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award) shortlist, now in its 17th year and the only award for published poetry for children in the UK. CLiPPA highlights an important branch of children’s literature, ensuring that it receives proper recognition. The CLiPPA 2019 […]

Poetry Society Member Sarah Watkinson has been announced as the inaugural Wytham Woods Writer in Residence, under a new scheme to create strong cultural and scientific links between the public and this beloved woodland just outside Oxford – a city which has been home to so many famous writers. Sarah spent her most of her […]