COMMENDED POEMS:
Nostalgia by Savkar Altinel
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.
Amsterdam, Early March 2018 by Matt
Hohner
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.
Your Heart by Mary-Jane Holmes
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.
Love by Anthony Lawrence
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.
I have been trying to paint a portrait of
Simone by Joanna Lowry
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.
Between Ghosts by Eleanor Simpson
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.
ABOUT THE PRIZE
The prize, which is for an unpublished poem, is judged blind each year by a single judge.
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 shortlisted poems are published in the Irish Times online. The prize will open again in June 2023.