It’s a clean sweep for Poetry Society Members in the 2018 Paper Swans Press Poetry Pamphlet prize. From the longlist of 15 pamphlets, the judge, Abegail Morley, chose the following top three:

1st place — Self-portrait as a diviner, failing by Michelle Penn (Abegail: “real finesse. The poet lures in the reader, there is a sense of fore-boding from the start, a dark uneasiness.”)

2nd Place — Nude Against a Rock by Robert Hamberger (Abegail: “a no holds barred ekphrastic piece based on the life and works of Keith Vaughan whom the poet described as ‘a gay Neo-Romantic painter whose work mainly focussed on the male nude and landscape.’)

3rd Place — The Nature Factory by Sarah Doyle (Abegail: “From the opening poem I was immediately hooked. The language was precise, there was a lot of clear thinking in this to make it as tight as possible and the meticulous editing paid off.”)

Fellow Society Member Lydia Harris was Highly Commended for Filling the Gaps (alongside Fiona Cartwright) and there were plenty of Members on the long list too (highlighted below).

Longlist (in alphabetical order)

Speaking Constellations by Ruth Aylett

Listen for the Turn by Maria Isakova Bennett

Sodium 136 by Carole Bromley

Sister-Wives by Matt Bryden

The Saltwater Diaries by Sue Burge

A Ship in a Bottle by Olga Dermott-Bond

My Hotel by Scott Elder

My Shrink is Pregnant by Katie Griffiths

Titbits from the afterlife by Jacqueline P Haskell

回家 by Jennifer Wong

Paper Swans Press is a small, independent publisher of poetry and flash fiction. They print anthologies and pamphlets from individual poets/writers.

23 July 2018