2010 Book & Pamphlet Competition Winners
We're delighted to announce to four first-stage winners of the 2010 Book & Pamphlet Competition, chosen by Simon Armitage:
- Paul Bentley, Plymouth
"A remarkable, technically sophisticated blend of parody and elegy, personally felt poems interwoven with popular culture, party politics and history both natural and unnatural. Mischievous and moving." — Simon Armitage
- Christy Ducker, Northumberland
"Unsettling and edgy, these poems have the strangeness of myth and the zany logic of nursery rhymes, but for adult ears. A real zest for language and startling imagery." — Simon Armitage
- Maitreyabandhu, London
"Nostalgic, but not sentimental or wistful, the poems have a real sense of the here and now. They strike home." — Simon Armitage
- David Tait, Cumbria
"Careful and concise poems, like glimpsed scenes and small, intense dramas, full of knowing detail and telling lines. Tender but shrewd." — Simon Armitage
The four winners share £2000 (i.e. £500 each) in the form of a cheque from NAWE (the National Association of Writers in Education), together with mentoring.
The four winners have been invited to submit a full-length collection before the end of February (for the book prize in October). Two of the first stage winners have let us know that they do not feel ready to publish a full-length collection. They (and us) are delighted they will be publishing a pamphlet with us in May. The authors will be invited to an editorial session (or more than one) in time for publication and their launch reading in Sheffield (and readings elsewhere).
Simon Armitage wished also to highly commend the pamphlet by Ian Gregson, some of whose poems will appear alongside the first stage winners in the next issue of the North magazine in April.
The Sheffield Prize Category of the competition, also judged by Simon Armitage:
1st: James Caruth (read James's winning poem here)
2nd: Anthony Adler
3rd: Fay Musselwhite
Jim Caruth wins the £100 Sheffield University first prize. Anthony
and Faye will receive book tokens. All three poems will appear in the
April issue of the magazine, and the poets will give a short reading
as part of a Sheffield celebration at Bank Street Arts on March 11th.
The Poetry Business thanks everyone who entered this year, in what has been the most enjoyable adjudication to date. The annual Competition is by far our largest business income, and heavily subsidises both our wider publishing programme and our writer-development work. Just as importantly, through the Competition we find and publish poets we would not otherwise encounter, and who continue to enrich our list of the some of the best poets now writing.
The judges felt that in its 24th year, the standard in the Competition was exceptionally high – perhaps the highest it has ever been.
The Poetry Business receives financial assistance from Arts Council England.
