2020 Collection Competition

Guest Judge: Glyn Maxwell

We are delighted to announce the three winners of our 2020  competition and we are honoured to offer them publication of their outstanding collections. 

Selected by Glyn Maxwell June/July 2020:

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TREES, Lawrence Illsley

With deep roots and wandering branches, Lawrence Illsley’s A Brief History of Trees is brilliantly arboreal in both form and matter, a psychologically acute odyssey through grief and history, with its stanzaic spine sometimes holding firm as a trunk, sometimes scattered and blown into leaves and flowers. Highly original, enticing and profound.

 

ULTERIOR ATMOSPHERES, Samuel Prince

Ulterior Atmospheres instantly establishes Samuel Prince as a distinct and arresting new voice in English verse. Eye-catching images and blade-sharp observations are rendered in lines that are jazzy, robust and thoroughly alert. 

 

WITH LOVE, Alice Willitts

With Love is both deeply affecting and engagingly mischievous. Some poems come scaffolded with notes more lyrical than the poems, others are one breath, others one word-per-line, and every single title begins with the word love. Many poets play these games, but Alice Willitts’ purposes are serious and exacting, her effects memorable and moving.

SHORTLIST FOR FIRST COLLECTION

Alterations – Maeve Henry

A Glow-in-the-dark Skeleton – Toby Litt

Span – Tony Hendry

Starfish – Matt Riker

Ulterior Atmospheres – Samuel Prince

With Love – Alice Willitts

 

SHORTLIST FOR SUBSEQUENT COLLECTION

A Brief History of Trees – Lawrence Illsley

The Correct Use of Saints – Mark Fiddes

In the Men’s Room – Alexander Velky

The Lost Runner – Stuart Pickford

The Lotus Bunker – William Stephenson

This Bilk – Jane Burn

Thank you to everyone who submitted their work for consideration. We were overwhelmed by extraordinary writing.