Penelope Shuttle has chosen ‘Strange Nature’ by Poetry Society Member Joanne Key from over 1,000 entries to be the winner of this year’s Buzzwords Poetry Competition. Fellow Poetry Society Member Penny Boxall is one of the joint runners-up with ‘Monument Valley’. Among the Commended poets are Society Members Ama Bolton and Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana and David […]

Congratulations to Poetry Society Member Pascale Petit, chosen as the winner of the inaugural ecopoetry prize, The Laurel Prize, organised by the UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and the Poetry School. Pascale wins £5000 for Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe). Winner of the £500 Best First Collection award went to fellow Poetry Society Member Matt Howard for […]

‘Hermit Crab in a Doll’s Head’ by Poetry Society Member Cindy Botha is the winner of this year’s Rialto Nature and Place Poetry Competition judged by Pascale Petit. Fellow Society Members Jo Peters and Jemma Borg were Highly Commended. Cindy Botha began writing poetry in late 2017 as a relief from being sole-carer for her […]

Culture Matters, sponsored by Unite, have awarded Bread and Roses Poetry Awards to Poetry Society Members Jenny Mitchell and Antony Owen. There’s a prize of £100 each and an anthology of the poems of around a further 20 entrants will be published later in the year. The judges, Andy Croft of Smokestack Books and Mary […]

Poetry Society Member Vic Pickup is the winner of Hedgehog Press’s second annual Cupid’s Arrow Love Poetry Competition for her poem ‘Him, building me a bookcase.’ As well as being a poet, Vic is a writer and reviewer based in Hampshire. Her writing has found its way into anthologies, magazines and webzines, earned her top […]

Poetry Society Members finished first, second and third in this year’s Segora Poetry Competition, judged by Martyn Crucefix. Jenny Mitchell was awarded first prize for ‘Encountering a Slave Girl Held’. Jenny was joint winner of the Geoff Stevens’ Memorial Poetry Prize 2019, and winner of the Fosseway Poetry Competition 2020. Her debut collection is Her […]

CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Members Pat Winslow and S Niroshini, second and third in this year’s Poetry London Prize, judged by Ilya Kaminsky. The winner is Eleanor Penny, who has won multiple prizes with The Poetry Society’s Young Poets Network. Pat won second prize for her poem ‘1971, Northaw’. She was the winner of The […]

CONGRATULATIONS to Poetry Society Member Sheila Aldous, winner of the 2020 Welsh Poetry Competition, judged by Sally Spedding. Sheila had two other poems Highly Commended too! Sheila is a North London girl with Devon in her soul. Living on the banks of the River Teign she is inspired by life generally, but also the natural […]

Poetry Society Member Tim Kiely is the co-winner of this year’s Indigo First Pamphlet Competition, alongside Lauren Colley. Tim is a criminal barrister and poet living in London. His work has appeared in South Bank Poetry, Lunar Poetry, The Morning Star, Spontaneous Poetics, and Ink, Sweat & Tears, as well as the Emma Press anthology […]

Poetry Society Member Lawrence Illsley has been chosen by Glyn Maxwell as one of three winners of the 2020 Live Canon Collection Competition and will be offered publication. Lawrence’s collection A Brief History of Trees was described as: “brilliantly arboreal in both form and matter, a psychologically acute odyssey through grief and history, with its […]