The winners of the Newcastle Poetry Prize were announced on 21st September. Congratulations to the Winner, Kit Kelen, whose poem "Dombovar" took out first prize, and to the others who took out prizes or were highly commended: Verity Laughton, Jenny Pollack, Verity Oswin, Jo Gardiner and Andrew Menken. And of course it was a special thrill for us here at 5 Islands Press to see our managing editor, Mark Tredinnick, also figure amongst the prize-winners.
Mark was awarded the 2024 HWC Member Prize for his "Godwit Sonnet Cycle". The judges remark that Mark's poem interrogates "the cyclical nature of the tides and human lives" but "avoids veering into sentimentality or the sublime, while still managing to convey whimsy, humour and love." Congratulations, Mark!
An anthology containing all shortlisted poems is, as usual, available from the Hunter Writers Centre (click here)
The prize this year was judged by Caitlin Maling and Peter Boyle. As is often the case with the Newcastle Prize, the judges' comments provide an insight into where they believe the less successful entries went wrong. Below is an extract from their comments on poems that focus on "personal stories."
"Many poems focussed on personal stories, often very moving, but in many cases the range of personal details were not well integrated into the poem. The problem of finding an aesthetically satisfying conclusion often escaped the writer, leaving something that seemed less than what a short story or prose autobiography might have achieved. Many of the entries suffered from being recounts of various experiences, whether one’s own or another’s,
whether in teenage years or midlife, that failed to pass through the imaginative distillation required to create a poem. Often the details or personal disclosures evoked a response of ‘Why are you telling me this?’ rather than building towards a poem...
In several cases the personal story was all too much like a prose recount with no real music to justify the line breaks and with little daring or originality in language or imagery. A good poem needs to surprise or startle, leading the reader somewhere new rather than remaining within familiar tropes and expected language."
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