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ARTEMISpoetry Issue 31 includes the poems.
Our judge: Myra Schneider has published 17 collections, the latest Siege and Symphony and Believing in the Planet. She has tutored for The Poetry School and Second Light and has published several guides to poetry writing.
As always, the poems were judged anonymously. Adjudicator’s comment: “It was heart-warming to discover the very high standard of the entries and the seriousness of the subjects which women poets are tackling at this difficult time. Of course, this made it very hard to compile a long short list of about a hundred entries, reduce it twice and then pick winners, commended poems and poems for the final shortlist. Congratulations to the winners and everyone who entered the competition. ”
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: The Museum of Past Culture, Kathy Miles
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: When this is Over, Jenny Hamlett
2nd Prize, To the Ravenmaster at the Tower of London, Justina Hart
3rd Prize, My Mother was a Chinese Vase, Pat Marum
Read the Poems as they appear in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 31 (pdf)
Commended:
An archaeologist from the future excavates the present, Yvonne Baker
Mothering Sunday Lockdown 2020, Denise Bennett
Mr Crowther, Jeanette Burton
Retrospect, Katherine Gallagher
Becoming Limpet, Justina Hart
Afterlife, Ruth Sharman
Noah’s Wife, Anne Symons
Shortlisted:
The Best Days of Your Life, Cathy Grindrod
Visualisation, Jenny Hamlett
Soap, Justina Hart
Vanishing, Jenny King
In Coventry, 1940-1962, Gill Learner
Shepherd, Kathy Miles
Oniscus asellus, Judith Taylor
The Carers, Isobel Thrilling
Our judge Moniza Alvi has made her selection and all winners and commended poets have been contacted. ARTEMISpoetry Issue 29 includes the poems. MONIZA ALVI was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire. Her collections of poetry include The Country at My Shoulder (1993), Europa (2008) and At the Time of Partition (2013), all three shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Her most recent collection is the booklength sequence Fairoz (Bloodaxe, 2022).
As always, the poems were judged anonomously. Adjudicator’s comment: “It was a pleasure to encounter so much ambitious, far-reaching longer work and to find these qualities in the shorter poems too. Exploration was deep and enquiring on a range of themes, including that of nature and the environment. With so many imaginative, unexpected and vital poems, there were tough decisions to make. Altogether, it was a feast of poetry.”
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: The February Museum: recent acquisitions, Jane Routh
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: My body tells me that she’s filing for divorce, Kathryn Bevis
2nd Prize, My Cancer as a Ring-Tailed Lemur, Kathryn Bevis
3rd Prize, Viruses, Jane Routh
Read the winning Poems as they appear in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 29 (pdf)
Commended:
Flamingo, Kathryn Bevis
In Loshes Meadow, Anne Boileau
Once I was Flowers, Denni Turp
Psychosis, Jenny Hamlett
Climate breakdown, Stevie Krayer
Glass Blower, Pippa Little
Ancestry, Nancy Mattson
Hidden, Isobel Thrilling
Once I was Flowers, Denni Turp
Scar, Susan Utting
Mare Germanicum, Nicola Warwick
Runners-up:
What I told the Wren, Tina Cole
Heart, Jill Eulalie Dawson
Chil Khar, Yvonne Green
The Plague Whisperers, Aileen La Tourette
Physick, Kathy Miles
Groundhogs and a globe, Anne Osbourn
The Glory, Myra Schneider
Because This Is A Venice Poem, Rachel Spence
My Mother’s Button Box, Judith Wozniak
Good Friday, Greece, 2009, Margaret Wilmot
Thank you to all who entered our 2021 poetry competition. We are delighted to congratulate our Prize-Winners: Daphne Milne and Cathy Whittaker (1st prizes), Niki Strange (2nd prize), and Janet Hatherley (3rd prize), as well as all those whose poems were commended and/or shortlisted. The full results are shown below.
JUDGE HANNAH LOWE teaches at Brunel University. Her collections are, Chick (Bloodaxe), which won the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize for Poetry, and Chan (Bloodaxe). She is one of 20 Next Generation Poets 2014. Her third collection The Kids, also from Bloodaxe (Sep 21) is a Poetry Book Society Choice.
Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: Instructions for Bottling Ships, Daphne Milne
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: Eleanor in the Garden, Cathy Whittaker
2nd Prize, I can write myself, Niki Strange
3rd Prize, Teachers, imagine that, Janet Hatherley
Read the winning Poems as they appear in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 27 (pdf)
Commended:
Mustang Sally, Louise Green
Tinderbox, Hilary Hares
Size Zero, Kaye Lee
The Lesson, Patricia Leighton
Papering Over, Liz Parkes
Colours, Myra Schneider
Keep Left: Ageing with Language, Belinda Singleton
Breakfast Meeting, Rachel Spence
The Illusionist’s Wife, Nicola Warwick
Patient, Margaret Wilmot
Valediction, Veronica Zundel
Shortlisted:
Selection, Denise Bennett
Toast and Marmalade, Jean Gillespie
Section Nine of the Kursk, Vicki Morley
Afterwards, Carolyn Oulton
Ma Lightkeeper’s Prayer, Jenny Pagdin
Lisa, Sue Proffitt
Beirut, Mary Robinson
Storytelling, Belinda Singleton
We Speak in Flowers, Jean Tuomey
Like Trees Shaped by a Prevailing Wind, Margaret Wilmot
Thank you to all who entered our 2020 poetry competition. We are delighted to congratulate our Prize-Winners: Lucy Hamilton and Justina Hart (1st prizes), Marion Oxley (2nd prize), and Rebecca Hubbard and Kathy Miles (3rd prizes), as well as all those whose poems were commended and/or shortlisted. The full results are shown below.
JUDGE MYRA SCHNEIDER. Myra Schneider’s latest collections are Lifting the Sky (Ward Wood, 2018) and Persephone in Finsbury Park (SLP, 2016). Writing Our Selves, a writing resource written with John Killick, was published by Continuum Books in 2009.
Myra Schneider, Adjudication Report:
There were a huge number of entries to the Second Light Competition this year … just over 1300 … and I was quickly struck by the wide range of subject matter and writing which revealed the very diverse backgrounds of entrants.
I looked or poems which not only used language and rhythm well but excited me because of the way the material was used and developed. It was with difficulty that I drew up a long list of about 180 poems and I was sad there were many poems that had much to recommend them which I had to reject at this preliminary stage. Many of these were well written but sometimes they didn’t travel anywhere, simply related an incident or story or described something but were one-dimensional because the poet had brought nothing of her own to the material. Other poems which were well developed read like condensed prose even though they were put into lines and verses. Several poems, especially longer ones, didn’t justify their length either because they were repetitive or they included material which wasn’t needed. Finally, some poems were uneven … strong in some parts but weak at the end or elsewhere.
My first short list had over 50 poems in it and then, although I was sure about the winning poems, it was very hard work to settle on a final commended and short list. The five winning poems are remarkable for their ambition and imagination and all of them draw brilliantly on the poet’s research and/or knowledge. The other poems I’ve picked out are outstanding too and those I had to reject from the 50 all reached a very high standard. There were many other good and promising poems so please don’t be disheartened if your entry wasn’t picked out.
Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: Doggerland Rising, Justina Hart
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: Messengers, Lucy Hamilton
2nd Prize, The Sleeping Princess, The Boys and The Monk, Marion Oxley
joint 3rd Prize, Night hunters, Rebecca Hubbard, and Constellations, Kathy Miles
Read the Poems as they appear in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 25 (pdf)
Commended:
Split the Lark, Sue Davies
The Words, Jenny King
The Light Gatherers, Kathy Miles
The Blank Page, Elisabeth Rowe
Our Brocken Spectres, Linda Saunders
Bodegón, Jean Watkins
Skunk Cabbage, Annie Wright
Shortlisted:
Shelter, Yvonne Baker
Mistress Iron Whale, Justina Hart
Ars Poetica, Alwyn Marriage
Sugar, Eleanor Punter
My Mother Being Very Deaf, Linda Saunders
Silversmith Raising a Vase, Linda Saunders
Talking of India, Ruth Sharman
Block, Kay Syrad
La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans, Denni Turp
JUDGE KATE FOLEY. Kate Foley’s background includes work as a nurse, midwife, teacher and archaeological conservator. She has published ten poetry collections, most recently Electric Psalms, New and Collected Poems (Shoestring 2016) and A Gift of Rivers (Arachne, 2018). She is the in-coming President of Suffolk Poetry Society.
Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: Poet at War, A C Clarke
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: The Music Room, Kathy Miles
2nd Prize, Ginkgo Biloba – Survivor of Hiroshima, Harriet Proudfoot
3rd Prize, Manhattan, August 1974(exerpts) , Margaret Wilmot
Read the Poems as they appear in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 23 (pdf)
Commended:
My mother’s missal, Yvonne Baker
Remembrance, Jan Bay-Petersen
When this is Over, Jenny Hamlett
Short Poems from the Russian, Pamela Job
Afterthoughts from Italy, Angela Kirby
Red Kites, Mary Robinson
As the grass of the field, Mary Robinson
Breakthrough, Mary Robinson
My Voice in the Whisper of Wings, Jenny Vuglar
Frances Hodgkins Remembers Constable: Flatford Mill 1930, Jenny Vuglar
Shortlisted:
Chloe and Mum Make Butter, Jill Boucher
Born, Carole Coates
Sketch of January, Geri Dogmetchi
To the Ravenmaster at the Tower of London, Justina Hart
Closure, Carolyn King
It’s Funny what you Remember, Angela Kirby
Mrs Woolf Takes a Walk by the Orrin, Sheila Lockhart
The Artist at Work, M R Peacocke
A Levels in the Convent, Pauline Plummer
Going North, Isobel Thrilling
Our judge for the 2018 competition is Esther Morgan. Our thanks to Esther and to all who submitted poems. Congratulations to our winners: Nicolette Golding (1st, Long Poem), Linda Saunders (1st, Short Poem), Pippa Little (2nd) and M R Peacocke (3rd); and to all those Commended and Shortlisted (full list below).
The adjudication event on Friday 16th November took place as part of the Autumn Festival, with readings by the judge and those winning poets able to attend. The Judge’s comment is published, along with the Winning and Commended poems , in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 21 (November 2018).
Full Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: Where is Jill?, Nicolette Golding
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: Tresure, Linda Saunders
2nd Prize, White Afternoon, Pippa Little
3rd Prize, Coming Across, M R Peacocke
Read the Poems as they appear in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 21 (pdf)
Commended:
There’s more to it, Dorothy Ann Coventon
My step-daughter’s new boyfriend keeps a rat in his pocket, Wendy French
Saltwater, Janet Lees
The Wearing of the Gold, Pat Marum
Signing herself out, Carol Rowntree Jones
Lucernarium, Anne Ryland
The Singing Women of Duddo, Anne Ryland
Top-down history, Judith Taylor
Short-Listed:
Fallout, Carol Beadle
Flying Faster Than Sound, Daphne Gloag
Life Class, Nicolette Golding
Mappa Mundi, Pippa Little
Thirteen Ways of Looking at an Unidentified Bird, Jennie Osborne
On Iona, Marg Roberts
Siege and Symphony, Myra Schneider
Night Things, Nicola Warwick
Who Would Be the Ink, Jay Whittaker
There are signs of leaving, Margaret Wilmot
This year’s Judge is Myra Schneider. Our thanks to Myra and to all who submitted poems. Congratulations to our winners: Jill Eulalie Dawson (1st, Long Poem), Mary Robinson (1st, Short Poem), Liz Diamond and Shirley Wright (each awarded a 2nd prize – as our judge concluded that neither should be downgraded to 3rd!); and to all those Commended and Shortlisted (full list below).
The adjudication event took place during the Autumn Festival (17th & 18th November 17), with readings by the judge and those winning poets able to attend. The Judge’s comment is published, along with the Winning and Commended poems (in full or extract), in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 19 (November 2017).
Full Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: Mole, Jill Eulalie Dawson
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: Six Studies of Pillows, Mary Robinson
2nd Prizes, An Inuit Father Tells His Son the Story of the Ghost Ship, Liz Diamond
and Warfare. Somewhere., Shirley Wright
Read the Poems as they appear in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 19 (pdf)
Commended:
Bipolar planet, Jill Boucher
Without weather, Hilaire
How Long Is Not Long?, Daphne Gloag
Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, Nicolette Golding
Clustog fair, Mary Robinson
The Witch, Her Book, Martha Street
Short-Listed:
Watch, Carol Beadle
In Her 75th Year She Discovers Daisies, Chris Considine
The Solace of Bearings, Sue Davies
Clay, Alyss Dye
Time Lines, Margaret Eddershaw
Hail, Sisters of the Revolution, Caroline Gilfillan
In the Cemetery of the Insane Paupers, Louise Green
Under the Bed, Justina Hart
On Looking into the Faces of Mushrooms, Carolyn King
Such Tales They Had to Tell, Denise McSheehy
Cracks and Heartwood, Kathy Miles
White Heat, Jenna Plewes
Lives of the Artists (1880-1930), Jane Routh
Kintsugi, Christine Vial
Falling for Icarus, Catherine Whittaker
The Gift of Christmas, Shirley Wright
This year’s Judge was Alison Brackenbury. Our thanks to Alison and to all who submitted poems. Congratulations to our winners: Alison Mace (1st, Long Poem), Caroline Price (1st, Short Poem), Angela Kirby (2nd) and Martha Street (3rd); and to all those Commended and Shortlisted (full list below).
The adjudication event took place during the Autumn Festival lineup (17th & 18th November 16), with readings by the judge and three of the winning poets. Winning and Commended poems, and the Judge’s comment, are published (in full or extract) in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 17 (November 2016).
Full Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: Schoolteaching, Alison Mace
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: The fiancée replays her vidio, Caroline Price
2nd Prize, In Which I Rebuild the Luminous City from the Detritus of my Past, Angela Kirby
3rd Prize, Winter Solstice, Martha Street
Read the Poems/Extracts as they appeared in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 17 (pdf)
Commended:
The Affair, Claire Askew
I have no words for this, Dorothy Coventon
Cycling on Lüneburg Heath, Sue Davies
Blodeuwedd, Jennie Farley
The Not Okay Corral, Justina Hart
In the hairdresser’s chair, Hilaire
Wide-Eyed, Alice Kavounas
Boating under the Northern Lights, Anna Kisby
Behind the Dolphin-Crested Gates, Jennie Osborne
My Father, Beyond the Pale, Orel Protopopescu
Geraniums, Louise Warren
Shake a leg, Rosy Wilson
Short-Listed:
Reservoir, Sarah Barr
Hen and Wendy’s, Jill Boucher
My Father Sang, Lorna Dexter
The Wall, Angela France
One Christmas, Jenny Hamlett
Swallower of light, Kathryn Healey
The Astronomer’s House, Pat Marum
Storyteller, Joan Michelson
Absolutely the last, Rosie Miles
On Merthyr Mawr Dunes, Elizabeth Neal
The Arrival, Susan Jane Sims
Menstruation, Olivia Walwyn
dreaming blue, Rosy Wilson
This year’s Judge was Myra Schneider. Our thanks to Myra and to all who submitted poems. Congratulations to our winners: Margaret Wilmot (1st, Long Poem), Carolyn King (1st, Short Poem), Judith Taylor (2nd) and Kathy Miles (3rd); and to all those Commended and Shortlisted (full list below).
Winning and Commended poems (in full or extract) and the judge’s comment, appear in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 15 (November 2015).
Full Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: November Journal, Margaret Wilmot
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: Souvenir, Carolyn King
2nd Prize, Binding, Judith Taylor
3rd Prize, The Lady and the Unicorn, Kathy Miles
Read the Poems/Extracts as they appeared in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 15 (pdf)
Commended:
Welcome to our Museum of Curiosities, Yvonne Baker
Bugloss, Jan Bay‑Petersen
All at Sea, Margaret Eddershaw
Oradour-Sur-Glane, Viv Fogel
Going Home, Louise Green
Alchemists, Denise McSheehy
To Guddle, Catch a Fish with your Hands, Jenna Plewes
The slack-jawed girls, Caroline Price
The Edge, Isobel Thrilling
Cold feet, Aileen La Tourette
Short-Listed:
In the Bowes-Lyon Museum, Pat Borthwick
Packing, Sheena Drayton
Memorandum, Ann Drysdale
Goggie, Caroline Gilfillan
On Liking Time, Daphne Gloag
Whitehorse Hill Burial, Jenny Hamlett
Friday 13th, Justina Hart
Was it for this, Gill Learner
They told you this is not the place to cry, Kate Pursglove
Deserted, Victoria Pugh
Tiger Boy, Gillian Radcliffe
Scapegoat, Elizabeth Rapp
Our thanks go to Jackie Kay who was our judge in this, our 20th Anniversary year Poetry Competition, and to all who submitted poems. Congratulations to our winners: Kate Foley (1st, Long Poem), Margaret Beston (1st, Short Poem), Pippa Little (2nd) and Ann Alexander and Sue Davies (joint 3rd); and to all those Commended and Shortlisted.
The date for the adjudication reading is not yet set but is to take place during the Autumn.
Publication of the poems (in full, or extract if a long poem) is offered to the winning and commended poets and are due to be published in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 13, due out in November 2014.
Judge’s Comment:
The standard was unusually high, some of the commended come very highly commended indeed and nearly made it … I think the poems are terrific and cover such a wide range of themes and styles, and pack a powerful punch, and are quirky and intelligent.
Jackie Kay
Amongst Jackie Kay’s many poetry awards and prizes are the Forward, Saltire, Scottish Arts Council (for The Adoption Papers) and a shortlisting for Costa. She also writes award-winning fiction both for adults and children, and for stage and TV. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University. She was awarded an MBE in 2006, and made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002. see more here
Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: The Other Side of Sleep, Kate Foley
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: By Heart, Margaret Beston
2nd Prize, How Helen Steven, Activist, Scratched An Adrienne Rich Poem On Her Cell Door
In Dumbarton Police Station, Scotland, Pippa Little
joint 3rd Prize, Watching my mother turn into a wasp, Ann Alexander
joint 3rd Prize, Double-take, Sue Davies
Read the Poems/Extracts as they appeared in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 13
Commended:
Down the Rabbit Hole, Pat Borthwick
Mother Lode, Sue Davies
Six Uses For Scratched CDs And Old Tapes: 1. Scarecrow, Rose Flint
Holy Island, Anne Lawrence
Hag, Pippa Little
Debt, Jacqueline Mulhallen
Survival, Myra Schneider
Brook Court, Caroline Smith
Pray, Vivienne Tregenza
Short-Listed:
A Scarlet Thread, Elizabeth Burns
Lampedusa, Sue Davies
Conscience, Alexandra Davis
Journey, Justina Hart
The Contents of her Handbag, Moya Pacey
The Royal Prince of the Lozi, Eveline Pye
The Old Apple Tree at Brockhill (14/09/13), Lesley Quayle
Nameless, Myra Schneider
Bert’s Pig, Diane Slaney
I Fly Above Myself, Kay Syrad
The Telling of the Bees, Sarah Westcott
Moniza Alvi was the judge of our competition in 2013. Our thanks to Moniza and all who sent in poems for the competition and congratulations to all those placed in the competition. Our 1st, 2nd & 3rd prize-winners are Clare Best (1st, Long Poem), Kathy Miles (1st, Short Poem), Gill Learner (2nd) and Helen Moore (3rd).
The adjudication reading is included in our Autumn Festival at The Gradidge Room of the Art Workers Guild in Queens Square, London, from 2 to 4pm on Thursday 21st November 2013. Poems (in full or extract) by the winning and commended poets will be published in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 11 in November 2013.
Judge’s Comment:
This competition’s world was an adventurous one, with so many of the poems ambitious and strongly engaged, from the very short to the extended. The selection included the magical and mysterious, the familiar made strange and the unfamiliar strikingly evoked. Silence could resonate as powerfully as words. Experiment was often in evidence, and the vitality of contemporary poetry affirmed.
Moniza Alvi
Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: Cell, Clare Best
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: Gardening with Deer, Kathy Miles
2nd Prize, Chill Factor, Gill Learner
3rd Prize, Earth Justice, Helen Moore
Read the Poems/Extracts as they appeared in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 11
Commended:
Funambulist, Pat Marum
Self Portrait with Elephant Grass, Cathy Wilson
The Mushroom Shed, Dorothy Yamamoto
Brother Ass, R V Bailey
Sea-Woman, Pam Job
Not Yet, Myra Schneider
Titan Arum, Justina Hart
Legacy, Olivia Dawson
Eidelweiss, Ruth Smith
Wayfaring, Karen Dennison
Short-Listed:
Thorns, Martha Street
Package Holiday, M R Peacocke
Mind and Soul, Moya Pacey
Living Next Door to the Sea, Ann Alexander
As If I Could Replace The Weight Of Her, Maggie Sawkins
Medical Illustrator, Val Doyle
Media and the Horses, Margaret Wilmot
My Mother’s House, Pat Borthwick
The Woods, Jill Eulalie Dawson
Figures of Eight, Caroline Price
We would like to thank our judge of the 2012 competition: Katherine Gallagher, along with all those who sent in an entry. Our congratulations to all those placed in the competition. Our 1st, 2nd & 3rd prize-winners are A C Clarke (1st, Long Poem), Doreen Hinchliffe (1st, Short Poem), Brigid Sivill (2nd) and Margaret Speak (3rd).
The adjudication reading took place at our Spring Festival in May 2013 at The Art Workers Guild in London. Poems (in full or extract) by the winning and commended poets appear in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 10 (May 2013).
Judge, Katherine Gallagher’s Comment:
I greatly enjoyed the challenge of judging, the juxtaposition and evaluation of short and long poems making the competition rather different. The ambition, range and assurance of the writing impressed, with the variety of subject matter. The writing skills offered a wonderful spread of voices. Poise, a taste for experiment and the sense of a poem’s dramatic space came through again and again…
Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: A Year in Transit, A C Clarke
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: The Newlyweds, Doreen Hinchliffe
2nd Prize, HA-NOI 2000, Brigid Sivill
3rd Prize, When Katya Became Katyushka, Margaret Speak
Read the Poems/Extracts as they appeared in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 10
Commended:
Pain, Maggie Butt
Museum Whispers, Margaret Eddershaw
Fifth Form, Rosemary Fisher
North of All Borders, Irene Hossack
Autumn Light, Angela Kirby
Song and Swamp, Melinda Lovell
Ice Music, Kathy Miles
Life Class, Jo Peters
St. Therese of Lisieux Relics on Tour, 2009, Aileen la Tourette
Quanta, Margaret Wilmot
Short-Listed:
Ebb Tide at Aldwick, Vivienne Artt
Walkabout, Margaret Beston
Witness, Christine Coleman
Bloodlines, Rose Flint
Saying Goodbye – South Downs Way, Jenny Hamlett
I’m Thinking of My Father, Kim Moore
The Mole Man, Linda Rose Parkes
In Search of Matisse, Myra Schneider
A Kind of Death, Joan Sheridan Smith
Swans, Margaret Speak
Our judge was Fiona Sampson. Over 1,000 entries were received. The winning and commended poems appeared in full or extract in Issue 8 of ARTEMISpoetry in May 2012. The adjudication reading took place during the Spring Festival 2012, also in May.
Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: For Ever, Daphne Gloag
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: At the Beaumont Hamel Memorial, France, Moya Pacey
2nd Prize, Painting on Vellum, Hilary Jenkins
3rd Prize, The Night Ship, Clare Crossman
Read the Poems
Commended:
Sun in an Empty Room, Pat Borthwick
After Hearing a Psalm, Anne Cluysenaar
The Tenderness of Men, Rose Flint
Coming in Late, A Sequence, Kate Foley
Just Because You Wear those Ridiculous Clothes, Selima Hill
Coming down from the turbulent light, Caroline Natzler
Chambermaids Lizzie King and Nellie, Jane Routh
Burn, Jane Routh
Battle, Susan Skinner
Tatania’s Visit, Kay Syrad
Runners-up:
Where Old Languages Go to Die, Ann Alexander
Wondering About God, Dorothy Baird
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904), Caroline Cook
Knight Move, Wendy French
The Wax Man, Elizabeth Horsley
Shadow, Frances-Anne King
Trace, Frances-Anne King
Kiarostami’s Snows, Maria Jastrzebska
A Man and His Music, Gill Learner
Nochebuena in Exile, Puebla 1965, Marina Sanchez
Allihies, Kay Syrad
Choughs at Botallack, Glynda Winterson
The competition was Judged by Myra Schneider, a prolific poet and regular tutor of workshops and courses. As Scintilla is no longer running a poetry competition, and as we think it is important for women poets to have an outlet for long poems, Second Light introduced a long poem category to its competition this year.
An extract of the First Prize-winner in the Long Poem category and the winning poem in the Short Poem category, appear in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 5. Issue 6 includes more of the winning and runner-up poems (or extracts from long poems).
Adjudication Report:
This year over 1,200 poems were sent in to the Second Light Competition. It was very exciting to judge because there was such a range of subject matter and much ambitious writing. There were poems about world issues, politics, war and social problems. There were contemplative poems, witty poems, poems with a high emotional charge and poems drawing in a fascinating way on historical and literary material. It was a challenge to make decisions because of the mixture, for the first time, of long and short poems, because of the hugely different approaches and also because the standard of entries was so high. About 300 poems had to be considered very carefully and of these there were many I was sorry to reject because they had much to recommend them. I feel that the poems I finally picked out reflect how marvellously well women poets are writing today.
Myra Schneider
Results:
1st Prize, Long Poem Category: Clay, Anne Cluysenaar
1st Prize, Short Poem Category: Mermaid Andie Lewenstein
Joint 2nd & 3rd Prizes: Sand Pictures, Caroline Price; kite and flyer, Elisabeth Rowe
Read the Poems
Highly Commended:
The Bending Moment, Jill Dawson
The Lady Who Is Not For Turning, June Hall
Commended:
The Seahorse Man, Margaret Speak
Enter, Rose Flint
A Fox Assisted Cure, Kate Foley
Philip Larkin In The Laundrette, Doreen Hinchliffe
Handover, Emily Hinshelwood
Assimilation, Jane MacLaughlin
Power-Surge, Isobel Thrilling
New Homes, Sarah Westcott
Shortlisted:
Down To Portsmouth, Kate Foley
Unconditional Life, Cora Greenhill
Handhold, Justina Hart
Whatnot, Jo Heather
The Love Of Wood, Penelope Hewlett
California Day, Wendy Klein
Letter To An Ancestor, Gill Learner
Portrait Of A Child…, Jane MacLaughlin
La Matelote, Alwyn Marriage
Hand In Hand, Lyn Moir
23 To Liverpool Street, Caroline Price
Hoopoes, Elisabeth Rowe
Words, Shelley Tracy
Two Men, Sarah Westcott
and poems deserving a special mention:
Mollusc, Patricia Bloom; Home and Warning, Pat Borthwick; Winter Journey, Susanne Ehrhardt; Lir, Angela France; When the Lamp Oil was Spilt, Jenny Hamlett; In the Dining Room, Jo Hemmant; The Lodestar of the Upper VI, Gill Learner; How We Would Talk, Denise McSheehy; Mildred, Geraldine Paine; Wild Heaven, Elisabeth Rowe; Secondaries, Sibyl Ruth; Our House, Maggie Sawkins; Life Class, Belinda Singleton; Cure for Bee Stings, Margaret Speak; Young Girl with a Tree in her Brain, Marion Tracy
The Judge is Pauline Stainer, whose latest collection, Crossing the Snowline (Bloodaxe 2008), has been received with acclaim by reviewers. We included a review in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 1 and Pauline kindly read for Second Light at the Autumn Festival 2008, following up with a workshop at the May 2009 event.
The winning poems, along with poems which were commended or shortlisted, are published in ARTEMISpoetry, Issue 5, which came out in May 2010 and many of the poets, including the winners, read their poems at the adjudication event at the Spring 2010 May Madness Festival.
Results:
1st prize: Lynne Wycherley, The Lightning-Horse
2nd prize: Margaret Wilmot, Hermetic
3rd prize: Kay Syrad, "Registering their flora,/their fauna"
Read the Poems
Commended:
Suzanne Burrows, The Horses and Crossing the Bridge
Anne Cluysenaar, The Pear-tree
Kate Foley, Heart Surgery
Clare Holtham, The Jerwood Library
Pippa Little, Acrobat
M R Peacocke, The greeting
Marion Tracy, Nest and Bipolar
Jenny Vuglar, This Morning
Shortlisted:
Ann Alexander, Cabbage Cutters Wanted. Basic English. Night or Day
Dorothy Baird, 29 April
Ann Boileau, Within its Time and Frame
H Coffey, On Ivory
Margaret Eddershaw, Queen of the Tightrope
Jacqueline Gabbitas, Grass discovers metempsychosis
Mavis Howard, Nature
Gill Learner, Resurrection
Helen Loselock-Burke, Clouds on the Blackthorn
Sue MacIntyre, Interior, 1893 and A Wine Glass Half Full of Milk
Jane McLaughlin, Crossings
Rosemary McLeish, Handless Bride
Nancy Mattson, Learning the Letter Щ and Compasses: a Triptych
Caroline Natzler, Paper place
Elizabeth Rowe, Blue
K V Skene, Why I Wasn’t Listening
Dorothy Yamomoto, The button box Tiger hunt
Judge, Gillian Clarke, announced her selections just in time for a sneak preview of the winners’ list at the Autumn Festival. The winning and other poems were published in ARTEMISpoetry, Issue 2, in May 09.
Results:
1st prize: Eleanor Livingstone, Snow Hare;
2nd prize: Anne Wigley, Learning to Swim
3rd prize: Sheila Wild, Shiant Wife
Runners up:
Alison Brackenbury, Great-Great
Wendy Klein, Kid Gloves
Gill Learner, Counted Out
Pat Marum, The Insect Parlour
Lyn Moir, Ice Dream
Gillian Moyes, Norah
Isobel Thrilling, Last Day
Nicola Warwick, The Iceman’s Wife
Shortlisted:
Hilaire, The Colonel’s Daughter’s House
Claudia Jessop, Hope
Carlotta Johnston, Wild Grass Mull
Thelma Laycock, The Sash
Gill Learner, Through and Through
Gill Learner, A Descent from Mount Olympus
Eleanor Livingstone, The Soul
Lyn Moir, Juanjo, The Guggenheim, Me
Jennie Osborne, Quantum
Diana Pritchard, Barefoot in the Snow
Kate Rhodes, Details
Gillian Clarke is President of Ty Newydd, the writers’ centre in North Wales which she co-founded in 1990, tutor on the M.Phil in Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan, and the current National Poet for Wales. Her poetry is studied for GCSE and A Level throughout Britain. Recent books include Making the Beds for the Dead, 2004, a prose collection, and At The Source, 2008. A new collection, A Recipe for Water, is due in 2009.
