Article
Welcome to UK Poetry - April 2010
March 12, 2010
“The National Poetry Competition is the one all poets want to win, whether published or not,” says Neil Rollinson, one of the 2009 judges. Fellow judge Daljit Nagra adds: “Winning any prize in the National Poetry Competition is a great acknowledgement for the poet that they are on the right path. The exposure does wonders for your CV, your kudos in the poetry world and for your confidence.”
This edition of Poetry International Web UK looks at three poets connected to the 2009 competition: Helen Dunmore, Ian Pindar and Neil Rollinson. Third-place winner of the 2009 competition, John Stammers, is already featured on PIW.
Helen Dunmore, poet and novelist, won first prize in the 2009 National Poetry Competition with her poem ‘The Malarkey’. Ruth Padel, one of the judges, said: “I found it completely arresting in its quietness, in the hidden strength of what it was saying so unobstrusively.” Daljit Nagra, judge, also said: “The poem stood out for me because it dealt with our personal domestic fears for our children and our national paranoia about who lives down our road and whether it is safe for our children to be playing outside. The poem did all this by creating one specific situation and allowing the image to develop until I felt I was living the experience.”
Ian Pindar won second prize this year with ‘Mrs Beltinska in the Bath’. His forthcoming collections are Emporium and Constellation which will be published by Carcanet in 2011 and 2012 respectively. The third prize went to John Stammers with ‘Mr Punch in Soho’.
Neil Rollinson, one of the judging panel, is also himself a past winner of the competition (in 1997). He has published three collections to great critical acclaim, Spanish Fly, A Spillage of Mercury and Demolition, all published by Jonathan Cape (Random House) and all winning Poetry Book Society recommendations.
More about the 2010 competition
The competition runs annually, opening in the spring and closing in the autumn. The 2010 competition launches in April, just as the 2009 winners are announced. The line-up of poets judging in 2010 is: George Szirtes, Deryn Rees-Jones and Sinéad Morrissey.
George Szirtes, who was a guest at the Poetry International Festival in 2009, was born in Budapest, Hungary. He was first published in national magazines in 1973, and as well as publishing many collections of his own he has worked extensively as a translator of other poets’ work.
Deryn Rees-Jones was born in Liverpool, and her published works include Quiver (2004), a book-length murder-mystery poem.
The third judge, Sinéad Morrissey, from Northern Ireland, won the National Poetry Competition in 2007 with the poem ‘Through the Square Window’, which went on to become the title poem of a collection that was shortlisted for the 2009 T.S. Eliot Prize.
New for the 2010 National Poetry Competition is an increased prize fund. The first prize remains at £5000, but the second prize, originally £1000, increases to £2000, and third prize of £500 increases to £1000. Seven commendations receive £100 each. Winners and commendations are presented with their awards in the lavish surroundings of the Savile Club in London’s Mayfair, at one of the most important events in London’s poetry calendar. The evening also sees the announcement of the Poetry Society’s Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, a new prize funded by Carol Ann Duffy with the annual honorarium that the Poet Laureate traditionally receives from HM The Queen. Links
View all of the winners, including all of the commended poems, at the Poetry Society's website.
Ian Pindar will be published by Carcanet Press based in Manchester.
The first, second and third winners of the National Poetry Competition will be published in the Spring edition of Poetry Review.
Finding success in the Poetry Society’s National Poetry Competition has long been a key career moment for established and emerging poets. The competition, founded in 1978, accepts entries from all over the world – some ten thousand poems a year. Entrants submit a poem (or poems) for the consideration of three respected judges. The poem may be on any theme, and the only real restriction is that it must be no longer than forty lines. The poems are presented to the judges as anonymous works; they have no idea whether the poem they are reading is by a well-established name or by a so-far undiscovered talent.
This “level playing field” has seen unknown poets emerge and go on to change the face of the poetry world. In 1983, a little known poet named Carol Ann Duffy won the competition with a poem titled ‘Whoever She Was’. Now, Duffy is the UK Poet Laureate. “In those days, one was still called a ‘poetess’,” she says, “so it meant a lot, as a young woman poet, to begin to try to change that.”“The National Poetry Competition is the one all poets want to win, whether published or not,” says Neil Rollinson, one of the 2009 judges. Fellow judge Daljit Nagra adds: “Winning any prize in the National Poetry Competition is a great acknowledgement for the poet that they are on the right path. The exposure does wonders for your CV, your kudos in the poetry world and for your confidence.”
This edition of Poetry International Web UK looks at three poets connected to the 2009 competition: Helen Dunmore, Ian Pindar and Neil Rollinson. Third-place winner of the 2009 competition, John Stammers, is already featured on PIW.
Helen Dunmore, poet and novelist, won first prize in the 2009 National Poetry Competition with her poem ‘The Malarkey’. Ruth Padel, one of the judges, said: “I found it completely arresting in its quietness, in the hidden strength of what it was saying so unobstrusively.” Daljit Nagra, judge, also said: “The poem stood out for me because it dealt with our personal domestic fears for our children and our national paranoia about who lives down our road and whether it is safe for our children to be playing outside. The poem did all this by creating one specific situation and allowing the image to develop until I felt I was living the experience.”
Ian Pindar won second prize this year with ‘Mrs Beltinska in the Bath’. His forthcoming collections are Emporium and Constellation which will be published by Carcanet in 2011 and 2012 respectively. The third prize went to John Stammers with ‘Mr Punch in Soho’.
Neil Rollinson, one of the judging panel, is also himself a past winner of the competition (in 1997). He has published three collections to great critical acclaim, Spanish Fly, A Spillage of Mercury and Demolition, all published by Jonathan Cape (Random House) and all winning Poetry Book Society recommendations.
More about the 2010 competition
The competition runs annually, opening in the spring and closing in the autumn. The 2010 competition launches in April, just as the 2009 winners are announced. The line-up of poets judging in 2010 is: George Szirtes, Deryn Rees-Jones and Sinéad Morrissey.
George Szirtes, who was a guest at the Poetry International Festival in 2009, was born in Budapest, Hungary. He was first published in national magazines in 1973, and as well as publishing many collections of his own he has worked extensively as a translator of other poets’ work.
Deryn Rees-Jones was born in Liverpool, and her published works include Quiver (2004), a book-length murder-mystery poem.
The third judge, Sinéad Morrissey, from Northern Ireland, won the National Poetry Competition in 2007 with the poem ‘Through the Square Window’, which went on to become the title poem of a collection that was shortlisted for the 2009 T.S. Eliot Prize.
New for the 2010 National Poetry Competition is an increased prize fund. The first prize remains at £5000, but the second prize, originally £1000, increases to £2000, and third prize of £500 increases to £1000. Seven commendations receive £100 each. Winners and commendations are presented with their awards in the lavish surroundings of the Savile Club in London’s Mayfair, at one of the most important events in London’s poetry calendar. The evening also sees the announcement of the Poetry Society’s Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, a new prize funded by Carol Ann Duffy with the annual honorarium that the Poet Laureate traditionally receives from HM The Queen. Links
View all of the winners, including all of the commended poems, at the Poetry Society's website.
Ian Pindar will be published by Carcanet Press based in Manchester.
The first, second and third winners of the National Poetry Competition will be published in the Spring edition of Poetry Review.
© Alan Ward / Naomi Wood
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