PRIZES

Listings

Judge's comments

2011 Winner of the Roy Fisher Prize for new work in poetry

2012 Short-listed Bridport Poetry Prize

2013 Third Prize - Ludlow Poetry Festival Competition

2015 Winner - Stafford Green Arts Festival Poetry Competition

2015 Highly Commended Bridport Poetry Prize

2016 1st Prize Café Writers Competition

2017 Highly Commended in the Aurora (Writing East Midlands) Prize

2017 Runner up in Wigtown Poetry Competition

2018 Short-listed in the Bridport Poetry Prize

2019 Third prize in the Wolverhampton Literature Festival Poetry Competition

2019 Short-listed in the Bridport Poetry Prize

2020 Winner of Birmingham Museums Inspire 20 Competition

2021 Highly Commended in the Welshpool Poetry Festival Competition

Andrew McMillan, Café Writers Competition judge wrote - "I showed the winning poem to a wonderful poet friend of mine who I trust wholeheartedly, it’s a great poem, he said, because it doesn’t feel like a competition poem. I know exactly what he means, and yet I can’t explain it to you; ‘This is not to exaggerate’ is a tight, lucid poem which feels quieter, somehow less ‘showy’ than a poem which might cartwheel and twirl its way out of an envelope for a poetry competition shouting PICK ME PICK ME; it’s first few lines grabbed me, and it sustains itself all the way through."

Wigtown Poetry Competitions Judge Ryan Van Winkle wrote: "The central idea for Instructions for Making a Child seems, at first, almost whimsical but quickly reveals a dark surrealism. I love how the poet inexplicably is able to knit together a tense atmosphere from a series of directions."

Welshpool Competition Judge Steve Pottinger wrote: "Biblical references are sometimes shoehorned into a poem, but not here. Instead, they work perfectly to lead us into a child’s world where gods and footballers may well be one and the same."