Entries to the Cardiff International Poetry Competition arrive each year by the sack-full from poets spread across the globe, as well as from within Wales and the rest of the UK. In 2012 the truly international reputation of the competition continues as the judges award First Prize of £5,000 to multi award-winning poet Mark Tredinnick from Australia.
Mark was awarded the prize by judges Patrick McGuinness and Sinéad Morrissey for his poem ‘Margaret River Sestets’. No stranger to competition success he has won many Australian poetry awards, including the Blake and Newcastle Prizes and last year he won the prestigious Montreal International Poetry Prize. Mark, who lives with his family on the Wingecarribee River, southwest of Sydney, has been described as “one of our great poets of place – not just of geographic place, but of the spiritual and moral landscape as well” (Judith Beveridge). He has published eleven works of poetry and prose and a second volume of poetry, Body Copy, will appear in 2013, along with a memoir, Reading Slowly at the End of Time.
Second Prize of £500 was awarded to Jonathan Edwards from Crosskeys in south Wales, for his poem ‘Evel Knievel Jumps Over My Family’. Jonathan was awarded a Literature Wales New Writer’s Bursary in 2011 and won the Terry Hetherington Award in 2010. His first poetry collection, My Family and Other Superheroes, is forthcoming from Bridgend-based publisher Seren Books. Digital editor and Creative Writing tutor Harry Man from London was awarded Third Prize of £250 for his poem ‘Lost Ordinance, Sussex, 1943’. His work has appeared in a number of literary magazines and journals including New Welsh Review and in 2011 Harry produced a contemporary dance and poetry collaboration for the London College of Fashion.
The top three winning poems will appear exclusively in print and digital formats in New Welsh Review 97, published on Saturday 1 September 2012.
The five equal runners-up in the competition each receiving £50 are: Annemarie Austin from Weston-Super-Mare for her poem ‘Cremated Girl’; Ben Holden from Bristol for his poem ‘The Lepidopterist’; Brett Evans from Conwy for his poem ‘Directed by Sergio Leone’; Jo Hemmant from Tonbridge for her poem ‘The Portreeve’s House, East Street’; and Kathryn Simmonds from London for her poem ‘The San Michele Cemetery’.
The 2012 competition was judged by poets Patrick McGuinness, Sinéad Morrissey and filter judge Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch.
Literature Wales Chief Executive Lleucu Siencyn said: “2012 has been a fantastic year for poetry so far and we’re delighted to be able to highlight some of the best new poetry produced worldwide through this Welsh competition. Poetry is one of the oldest artforms, yet the eight winners of the Cardiff International Poetry Competition prove that it is a flexible and engaging form, thoroughly relevant and ready to react to the demands of modern life. I congratulate all of the winners in this year’s Cardiff International Poetry Competition.”
The Cardiff International Poetry Competition is administered by Literature Wales and supported by Cardiff Council. The 2013 competition will be launched in autumn 2012. Full details will be available on the Literature Wales website in due course.
For more information on the 2012 or 2013 competitions contact Literature Wales on 029 2047 2266 / [email protected] or visit www.literaturewales.org/cipc/ where you can also read all of this year’s winning poems.
