First the good news: I got a note through a week or so ago from Paul McGrane at the Poetry Society saying my poem had been commended in the 2012 Stanza competition (judged by John Siddique), but the full results weren’t out until today. So what should I find, but that there are 2 other Brighton Stanza poets on the list of 10 commendeds – Tess Jolly and Tom Cunliffe. Hurrah for us all!
Tess is a friend primarily from Jo Grigg’s workshopping group, which has been a fantastic support and inspiration for me. She is a really talented poet and I’m so pleased to see her name coming up regularly in publications and comps.
So overall, I think that makes the Brighton Stanza the winner this year – thank to Jo for encouraging us all to take part. It’s only a small competition, but always nice to get a little recognition.
And the bad news? My submission to Ambit seems to have gone astray. So that’s 5 months of waiting for nothing. Boo! But the Ambit chaps were kind enough to respond to me on Twitter and suggested that if I re-submit I could mention what happened and they might put my poems a bit higher up the slush pile. Except now when I look at what I submitted, I don’t like them! So they deserve to be at the bottom!