Tag: national poetry competition

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At the National Poetry Competition awards night

Fiona Larkin

Yesterday evening Peter Kenny and I stood in the doorway of the wood-panelled hall at the Art Workers’ Guild in London and surveyed the throng: who were all these very tall, young people? I’ve no idea who gets invited to these shebangs, but it was a mystery to me – ten years ago the event would have stuffed full of the grandees of the poetry world. Now it’s all become a very youthful. Which I’m not complaining about, just observing!

So on to the ceremonies, and we were given readings of all the seven commended poems and then the top three. All poets did a good job, and the judges too, particularly the smiling Romalyn Ante. I particularly enjoyed Kit Buchan’s ‘Hallow’een Ghazal’, read very confidently from memory, and Matt Barnard’s second-prize ‘Two Boys at Midnight’. And then who should be announced as the winning poet but Fiona Larkin –  out of the Pindrop stable no less! –  and someone I feel actually know, with a lovely poem ‘Absence has a grammar’ – actually the title alone is prize-worthy.

I asked Fiona afterwards – what was it like getting the call? “It was back in January,” she said, ” I had a message to call the Poetry Society, and I assumed my direct debit hadn’t gone through or something…” Haha! An anecdote to dine out on for some time I think. How wonderful!

 

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National Poetry Competition and a Finished Creatures launch

Lee Stockdale wins the National POetry Competition 2022

Just grabbing a few minutes on Easter Saturday to write this. There’s only so much gardening you can do before needing a break. So, now I’ve tackled the wayward honeysuckle…

Last week, Peter Kenny and I treated ourselves to an informal ‘works do’ by going along to the prize giving for the National Poetry Competition on the South Bank in London.  We were  armed with a handful of home-made business cards for Planet Poetry, just in case, I and even gave a couple out, but we didn’t do any ‘roving mic’ interviews or anything, as I’m not sure we’re organised enough for that. But we enjoyed hearing the winning poems and (naturally) dissecting everything on the train home.

We talked about it on the podcast, so I won’t repeat myself here. The winner was Lee Stockdale, an American poet who we heard had entered the competition many times before before nailing the jackpot. Of course, hearing each poem read, just once, wasn’t nearly enough time to appreciate any of them properly. Certainly, there were poems (including the winner) which left me a bit nonplussed by on the night, but I warmed to them subsequently after reading them in the Winners’ Anthology.

Poetry competitions are a bit nuts, aren’t they? But lovely if you win, of course, and even a ‘commended’ or a ‘longlisting’ in the National can be a boost. But to keep entering all the competitions and never win anything I guess you need to have a thick skin and healthy self-belief. I think you have to remind yourself there is always, always an element of luck, and even if your poem does well in a competition it’s no guarantee everyone will like it. I speak as someone who once had a poem longlisted in the National, which I then confidently submitted over and over again to magazines and not a single editor would touch it. Some you win, some you lose!

On to this week and I was back at the Betsey Trotwood again, this time for the launch of Finished Creatures 7. I was very grateful to Jan Heritage for taking a wee poem of mine for this, the ‘shelter’ issue. As always, Jan managed the time splendidly while keeping things  relaxed and informal. I was very pleased to hear reading a good number of poets I’d never come across before, such as Katie Byford and Steph Morris

It also made my day when Jefferey Sugarman came up to tell me how much he appreciates my submissions list. Thank you, Jeff!

By the way, do have a listen to this week’s Planet Poetry episode, which includes an interview with the delightful Liz Berry about her new book The Home Child.

 

Angst/

SloPo

How are you doing?

Apparently we’re now all feasting on The Repair Shop and reruns of The Vicar of Dibley. The skies are bluer and quieter than ever, all the better to hear birdsong. Stars are brighter, if you have access to outdoor space at night time. I realise these are terrible times for so many people and I’m one of the fortunate ones. I’m not facing financial ruin, I’m ‘locked down’ in the company of my best friend and I have a garden. I’m able to appreciate Spring and watch things grow. Just the word grow makes me slow down. So what if I haven’t written any stonking new poems lately. I have a few ideas, but they need time to grow. SloPo seems to have come into its own.

I planted some basil seeds on 6th March, and another lot on 20th April. What a difference six weeks makes.

Basil growing

The problem is I have plenty of poems at the pre-germination stage and I want them to look more like that 6-week young basil!

I enjoyed reading an interview with Julia Cameron in the Sunday Times last week, (apologies if this is behind a paywall) on dealing with social isolation (“As westerners, we have a hard time sitting and doing nothing”). I remember reading The Artist’s Way and struggled to follow its advice. There’s something about ‘free writing’ that feels to me like the opposite: I feel restricted, I regress to cliche, old reminiscences, boring language and prosaic nonsense. An advocate might say ‘yes that’s the idea – not to think, just write’. But sadly it doesn’t free me up. I guess I could adapt the daily free writing to something else: word games around a theme or something that at least begins with a structure.

Next month I’m going to be following Adriene Mishler’s monthly calendar which will have a meditation element to it alongside the yoga. Meditation isn’t something I’ve ever got into, but these days I’m suitably chilled to give it a try.

Quick submissions update

So far I’ve managed to stick to my resolve of not entering any single-poem competitions. (Although I did try the Poetry Business Pamphlet competition again.) Having had nothing really appear in magazines for months, I’m paying the price for submitting very little in the second half of 2019. I did have a poem long listed in the National this year, which I was chuffed about (once I’d got over the initial BWWAAA how did I manage to miss out on the money?) I’m very pleased to have a poem forthcoming in The North in the summer, and one in Stand. I’m currently awaiting responses to nine poems from three magazines. That’s it for now.

Wishing you love, health and slo-po.

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Competition season! Be afraid. Plus the odd launch

Those Darn Comps

Love ’em or loath ’em, but some of us just can’t stop ourselves entering. “Is there a competition season?” someone once asked me and I feel as if there is, and it’s now – not sure why except that the National always closes on October 31st, this year a particularly loaded date, sadly. Plus the results of the Bridport out soon.

If you keep up with Angela T Carr’s comps and submissions blog posts then you’ll already know this, but just a reminder:

National Poetry Competition (a misnomer actually – it’s International, as the list of prize winners generally confirms) – closing date 31st October, judges Mona Arshi, Helen Mort and Maurice Riordan. First prize £5,000 but tons of kudos and visibility to anyone making the ‘commendeds’. Even reaching the ‘long list’ is pretty good. First entry £7, Poetry Society members get a FREE second poem. Enter here and lashings of good luck to you.

Also don’t forget the Troubadour Poetry Prize, closing on 21st October. £5 to enter and £2000 first prize, with the very interesting combo of Kathryn Maris and Pat Boran judging this year. I predict there’ll be one grandaddy of a pile of paper in the Maris-Riordan household come November.

Launches, readings

This evening it’s the Needlewriters in Lewes with readings by poets Clare Best, Robert Hamberger and Anna Reckin, alongside prose writer Martin Nathan. I’ll be the host, which is always fun. Do come if you’re able.

This Sunday I’m off up to Greenwich, my old manor, for the Live Canon readings & competition results (for which we’re all being kept cruelly on tenterhooks, having made the ‘long list’ – I’m assuming I haven’t won since I haven’t had the call to say ‘you are coming, aren’t you…?’ But it will be a fun-filled afternoon I’m certain, and every one’s a winner baby (NOT! – whoever thought up that stupid phrase!) Anyway, I’m looking forward to hearing the Live Canon ensemble perform the winning poems, it’s an amazing experience.

November is shaping up well – my new pamphlet launch is scheduled for 25th and (same week) I’m reading for Rogue Strands in London on 28th – more to come on both. I’m also hoping to get to Lynne Hjelmgaard’s launch of A Second Whisper (Seren) on Monday 11th.

Meanwhile I’m getting close to the end of Virginia Woolf’s A Writer’s Diary – I’ve been slowing down as we approach the second World War, I almost can’t bear to read her thoughts on it all – and am also in the ‘Rotten Pockets’ of Hell c/o Signor Dante Alighieri. No wonder I’ve been having such weird dreams lately.

 

Angst/

National Poetry Competition awards night

NPC winners 2017

This is where I open with a statement about the star-studded atmosphere of the Savile Club ballroom last night, where the UK’s biggest poetry single-poem competition reached its climax…but this is my blog after all, so I know you’re expecting something a bit more – um – prosaic? Something about my exchanging some banter with Patience Agbabi while delving into my bag on the cloakroom floor, or trying not to look like an imposter as I anxiously scan the room for canapés. Well, yes, that did happen. And I was nervous walking in. But it was a joy to be there with poet friend Lynne, who shares my trepidation for these things but who always appears to be an oasis of calm and wisdom.

First up was the Ted Hughes Award, a newish prized instigated by Carol Ann Duffy, who generously funds it from her annual stipend for being Poet Laureate. Is she just the most impressive Poet Laureate ever? Like a brilliant Head Girl. Detention for anyone who doesn’t love her! The award “celebrates new work that may fall beyond the conventional realms of poetry, embracing mediums such as music, dance and theatre.” Winner this year was Holly McNish, and I was happy to see Harry Man also on the shortlist, a very talented and modest person who I had the pleasure of encountering on a Jack Underwood course a few years ago.

After a break, in which more schmoozing took place and the wine flowed, and a few people starting wilting for lack of canapés (I told Lynne she should have had the Scotch Egg with Apple Chutney that I’d had in the Running Horse earlier – small but perfectly formed), the big moment arrived. As the seven commended poets in the NPC were named, we realised we were standing in the same area of the room as the prize winners, which amused me no end. Although someone earlier in the evening did say to me “Have you won?” in such a matter-of-fact way I almost said “yes” just to see the reaction.

NPC judges
Jack Underwood and Moniza Alvi, two of the National Poetry Competition judges

I admit I was struggling to concentrate on the third and second placed poems as they were read, but how often does one reading of a poem have an impact? And it was hot and there was a lot of standing. But I genuinely enjoyed hearing Stephen Sexton read his winning poem ‘The Curfew’, and reading it on the way home. Congratulations that man, what a huge pile to rise to the top of.

Stephen Sexton reads his winning poem

The whole evening was great fun, and there was a warm atmosphere in the room. I felt able to say hello to many people, unfazed even by the occasional polite but puzzled ‘I can’t quite place who you are’ look. (Although I never assume anyone remembers my name so I always re-introduce myself – good manners I think!) At one point I said to Lynne “Oh, [Poet Name] just said hello to me, that’s good isn’t it?” to which she replied, unimpressed, “Who’s he?” which rather put my stupid name-dropping antics in their place. I enjoyed meeting new people, including Richard Stillman who introduced himself as a Twitter friend, which is always nice, and who proved very useful for finding people in the room as he stood head and shoulders above everyone.

Big thanks to the Poetry Society for all of this. And commiserations to all of us who entered and yet again got nowhere – hey, there’s always next year.

 

Books/

Pre half-term round-up: submissions, events, other writing

October is my favourite month, partly because it’s the start of the run-up to Christmas with all sorts of musical things to come, before then of course Bonfire Night in Lewes – always an annual high point. Plus I have a birthday, and it’s generally a time for a stock-take and a bit of ‘where am I in my life?’ internal Q & A. I’ll spare you the full depths of the navel-gazing, but here are some of the projects occupying me at the moment:

Writing/submissions etc – not much to report, I haven’t given much time to writing in recent weeks, sadly, but I’m not stressing about it. In anticipation of one or two rejections which I believe are due in the next month, I sent out a few poems last week – I’m trying Ambit again, although I swore not to – can’t get out of my head the idea that I have stuff that belongs there. As regards lost submissions (one of the issues that plagues me) – for those publications that still require postal submissions I’ve taken to enclosing a stamped addressed postcard which just says ‘poems safely received at XYZ magazine’ for the mag to post back to me – which seemed like a trouble-free way of acknowledging receipt. More publications are now using Submittable, which I really like, and I also don’t mind paying £1 to submit (eg to Iota). I’ve blogged before about this and the subsequent poll was split.

Last year I missed the deadline for the National Poetry Comp, so this year I’m determined to enter something at least. I’ve never done well in the big comps, but hey, who knows. As for the pamphlet competitions, I’m tempted to try Iota Shots again (deadline Nov 10th), as  I’ve tightened up my short themed pamphlet and think it might now stand a chance. But I don’t think I’ll be trying the Poetry Business comp, because I’m not sure I’ve got 20 good-enough poems, and that’s not a competition I want to enter half-cocked. Maybe next year.

Other writing – yesterday I got my hands on a preview copy of ‘Blogging for Writers’ which was very exciting. It’s going to be available in shops in a few weeks’ time, and I’m planning a blog tour – yee haa! More about this on the website in due course. Then ‘The Golden Rules of Blogging (and How to Break Them)’ is due out in March 2015, and there’s already been interest from some prominent bookshops in staging readings / Q & A sessions. Double yee-haa!

Also, I have an article on blogging to write for Poetry News – if you’re reading this and thinking “Hmm… I remember Robin asking me some questions for this many months ago..” then you’re not wrong – it’s that very same piece, but there was no room for it in the last edition, so it’s going to be either in the Winter or the Spring issue. I have to write this TODAY.

Telltale Press –  Peter and I have been given some hot tips for potential Telltale poets and we’re in the process of feeling our way in that direction. Slow steps but it’s happening – both Peter and I have a lot of stuff on at the moment but we’re determined not to lose the momentum of the launch events, which were such a lift.

Readings etc – this evening is the quarterly Needlewriters event here in Lewes, with readings from Sian Thomas and Liz Bahs (poetry) and Colin Bell (prose). I’ll be doing the introductions which will be fun, particularly as I know all three readers. Always a lovely local vibe, in a cafe just yards from my house – would be perfect if I could have a glass of wine but today being a Thursday it’s no alcohol. Boo!

Next month I’ll be reading at the Poetry Society AGM at the wonderful Keats House – which feels like a big deal!  Rumour has it I’ll be one of the support acts to Daljit Nagra … I’m now over the initial excitement and into the slightly nervous period. But I won’t be stressing about WHAT to read until nearer the time (I hope).

Meanwhile I’ve already booked tickets for the T S Eliot prize readings in January – 10% off if you book before November 1st! I’ve really enjoyed it the last couple of years, big thanks to poet friends Charlotte and Julia for introducing me to this event.

A few plans for this blog – I’ve got two wonderful poets lined up to feature in the next couple of weeks, plus plans for a regular ‘regional focus’ – I’m going to be poking my nose into what’s happening down your way, and reporting back. Poets, there’s nowhere to hide!

Competitions/

National Poetry Competition awards last night

chandelier at the Savile Club

6.30pm on Thursday evening, and I receive an email invitation to the National Poetry Competition and Ted Hughes Award prizegiving evening at the Savile Club in the swanky area of London that is Mayfair, taking place 24 hours later.

Quick calculation: do I go? What can I wear? What if no-one speaks to me? Can I find a friend to go with? (Yes, I still think like a teenager in these situations). But how could I turn down the opportunity – bling! Booze! Famous poets! Plus of course I was being invited in my capacity as Brighton Stanza rep, so it would be churlish of me not to be there, representing.

A quick shout-around on Twitter/Facebook/email and I couldn’t conjure up a companion, so I set off like a proper grown-up poet, but with a little trepidation. I needn’t have worried, poet friend Lynne was there which was a great relief. Plus the friendly Poetry Society faces of Kate and Mike. Shall I do a load of name dropping now? Perhaps not. But Carol Ann Duffy, as brilliantly down-to-earth as always, did give me the mwah-mwah – although I’m sure she had no recollection of me, but she was graciousness itself and didn’t show it.

When the Ted Hughes Award was announced I found myself in pole position to take photos, but did I? Did I ‘eck. No. It felt like too intimate an occasion to point my phone at anyone, but I would love to have taken some general pics of the room. Instead, I managed one shot of Maurice Riordan’s back, plus his willowy companion with the ombre hair, and one of a chandelier.

Anyway – to speak of the awards themselves, it was exciting when Maggie Sawkins was announced as the Ted Hughes winner, as one of her collaborators was Lewes’s own Mark Hewitt, standing a few feet from me and grinning from ear to ear. Briiliant. Also fighting in the Lewes corner were John Agard and Grace Nichols.

The NPC announcements included all the Commendeds coming up for applause, the winner and the third place poet read their poems and we heard the second place winner on a recording from the US. I did wonder for a moment about the name – National Poetry Competition – surely it’s international? Is the title a misnomer? Time for a change of name, perhaps? The winner was Linda France, with a lovely (sort of) gardening-themed poem, although that doesn’t do it justice. You can read it and see the vid here, and all the winners/winning poems here.

Interestingly, the Hamish Canham prize was also announced last night, earlier that usual. This was the prize I managed to grab last year, but there was no ceremony (but I did get a big piece in Poetry News) – the new winner Suzannah Fitzpatrick and her poem is up on the Poetry Society website, but alas my name from last year seems to have been erased – boohoo! And I thought I might still be in the list of previous winners at least. Every little counts to a delicate poet ego!

All in all, although I felt like a bit of a gatecrasher, it was a great event to be at, I did have quite a few very nice conversations with people, thank you to the Poetry Soc for the invitation. And of course, congratulations to all the winners. And finally …

haunch of venison yard
I have to say, it’s worth a trip to London just for the joy of seeing quirky things like this … spotted on the lovely walk back to Green Park Station.