Savkar Altinel was born in Istanbul, but left in his late teens and now lives in the UK. He has published four collections of poetry and five genre-bending books dealing with loss, exile and rootlessness in Turkish, and won both of Turkey’s top two literary prizes, the Erdal Öz Literature Award and the Behçet Necatigil Poetry Prize. He has also written a number of poems in English, of which ‘Nostalgia’ is one. He continues to write poetry in English and hopes to complete his transformation into his linguistic double by embarking on a genre-bender similar to his Turkish ones soon.

Matt Hohner has won or placed in numerous national and international poetry competitions, including wins in the Doolin International Poetry Prize in Ireland and the Oberon Magazine Poetry Prize, and being shortlisted for The Moth Poetry Prize. His publications include Rattle: Poets Respond, Sky Island Journal, Takahē, The Storms Journal, New Contrast, Live Canon, and Prairie Schooner. An editor with Loch Raven Review, Hohner’s first collection Thresholds and Other Poems (Apprentice House) was published in 2018. 

 

Mary-Jane Holmes is studying for a PhD in poetry and translation at Newcastle University, UK. She has won the Live Canon Poetry Pamphlet Prize with her pamphlet Dihedral, the Bath Novella-in-Flash Prize (Don’t Tell the Bees, is published by Ad Hoc Fiction), the Bridport Poetry prize, Dromineer Flash Fiction Prize, Reflex Fiction Flash Fiction Prize and the Mslexia Flash prize. She has been shortlisted for the Beverley International Prize for Literature and longlisted for the UK National Poetry Prize. Her collection of poetry Heliotrope with Matches and Magnifying Glass is published by Pindrop Press and her collection of Flash Fiction Set a Crow to Catch a Crow is published by V. Press. She was included in the BIFFY 50 2019/2020, showcasing the best British and Irish Flash Fiction and was a UK National Poetry Archive showcased poet during lockdown.

 

A Line from Merwin by Dane Holt
Dane Holt’s poems have been published in Poetry Ireland Review, The Trumpet, The White Review, Stand, bath magg, One Hand Clapping, Anthropocene, Ink Sweat and Tears and elsewhere. He is poetry editor of The Tangerine, a Belfast-based magazine of new writing.

 

Anthony Lawrence has published eighteen books of poems and a novel. His most recent collection is ‘A Lock of Timedown’ (Life Before Man). His books and individual poems have won a number of awards, including the Prime Minister’s Literary Award, the Queensland and New South Wales Premier’s Awards, and the Blake Poetry Prize. He lives on Moreton Bay with his dingo Benny.

Joanna Lowry used to be an art historian writing about photography and contemporary art. Now she just writes poetry. Her work has been placed or shortlisted in a number of competitions – Arvon, Bridport, Teignmouth, Manchester Poets and Players – and she recently completed the MA Writing Poetry at Newcastle University with a Distinction. Her current work deals with age and desire, the striving for beauty and knowledge, and features spectacular women like Simone de Beauvoir, Leonora Carrington, Monica Vitti, and a small number of haunted male artists.

 

Remembrance Sunday by Carolyn Peck
Carolyn Peck was born and grew up in Essex before moving north to study English and Art History at Manchester and Birmingham Polytechnics (this was in the ’80s, before they became universities!). She then moved to London, where she lived and worked in arts administration before retraining and becoming a professional gardener. In 2009 she moved from Brighton to West Dorset where she is currently based. Since 2019 she has been a member of the Bridport-based Black Dog writing group. She has had short stories, flash fiction and poetry short- and long-listed in competitions such as The Bridport Prize and The Olga Sinclair Prize, and in 2022 she came second in the Keats and Shelley Memorial Association Poetry Prize.

 

Eleanor Simpson has been writing poetry for around 10 years. Her work has been previously published in Raum magazine and Glad Writers’ compendium. Eleanor lives in Glasgow with her partner and works as a therapist. She recently became a mother and looks forward to writing about this as soon as she finds the time.

 

As we announce the overall winner of the €6,000 prize at a special award ceremony at Poetry Ireland online on Ireland Poetry Day, 27 April – a chance to listen to the poets read their shortlisted works. Tickets are free and all are welcome.

 

The prize was judged blind by Nobel Laureate Louise Glück. The overall winner receives €6,000, while the three remaining shortlisted poets each receive €1,000. A further €250 is given to each of the commended poets. The prize will open again in June 2023.