We are very pleased to announce, for only the second time ever… joint winners of this year’s Poet of the Year Competition. The two spectacular winning poems are: In the Eastern Townships, Québec by Kerry Rawlinson and Prairie by Gary Michael Studley. Third place is awarded to Yesterday at the Car Wash I Cried for My Dead Brother by Linda Ford.

We send our congratulations to all the winners and thanks to those who took part.

The announcement was made on National Poetry Day, 3 October, during our on-line Awards Evening, a delightful couple of hours when all the shortlisted poets read their work revealing what a high standard of poetry we received this year.  Consequently, the Judges had a difficult time in deciding on the winners.

The Judges’ comments on each of the shortlisted poems may be found here and all the short and longlisted poem are available in an anthology available from the Festival Office for £5 each. 

We send our sincere thanks to, Geralyn Pinto, Luigi Marchini, Mara Adamitz Scrupe, Derek Sellen, Jeremy Dunhill and Jeremy Cross.