Global interest for Guernsey poetry competition

Saturday 30 March 2019

A poem by Sharon Black, who lives in France, has scooped the £1000 first prize in the open section of the Guernsey International Poetry Competition, organised as part of the 2019 Guernsey Literary Festival.

The competition was split into three sections, Open, Channel Islands and Young People.

Ms Black's winning entry, 'Passing it On' was chosen among an "unusually large" field of published UK poets this year, although some entrants came from as far as Australia, New Zealand, India, America, Hong Kong, Tunisia and Singapore as well as closer to home.

Originally from Glasgow, Ms Black now lives in a remote part of the Cévennes mountains of France. Her work has been published and she has won a number of leading competitions including the London Magazine Poetry Prize 2018 and the Cheltenham Poetry Festival Competition 2017. She is also editor and publisher of Pindrop Press.

Pictured: 'Passing it On' by Sharon Black.

Chris Hardy from London took the second prize of £500 while Manchester's Holly Hopkins bagged £250, coming in third.

The first two prizes in the Channel Islands section of the competition went to Jersey writers Judy Mantle and Juliette Hart, while Susie Gallienne from Guernsey gained third place.

In the young people's category both first and second places went to E Wen Wong from New Zealand.

The competition was judged by poet Maura Dooley, who is coming over to the island for the Guernsey Literary Festival in May to present the prizes, lead a workshops and read her own work.

"This competition is unusual, perhaps unique," she said, "in asking for poems of a maximum of 14 lines. It made me reflect on the great skill needed to make something memorable in so few lines. There is no room for harrumphing or wittering on.

"I read of joy and of loss, of ageing and of new life beginning, some fine, detailed descriptions of landscape, some wry character studies and many good poems which defied easy categorisation."

Pictured: Maura Dooley's latest poetry collection 'The Silvering'.

Maura Dooley has had her latest collection of poetry, 'The Silvering', published by Bloodaxe. She was a poet-in-residence at the Jane Austen House Museum and her work has been shortlisted for the T S Elliot Prize and the Forward Prize. She is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature and teaches at Goldsmith's University in London.

All the competition winners will have their poems displayed as part of Poems on the Move on some Guernsey buses, at the airport and in Aurigny aircraft.

Boley Smiley, Chief Executive of sponsors Guernsey Post, said: "This competition brings in creative talent from all over the world, and this can only help and inspire the island's own talent. We're delighted to play our part."

Pictured top: Maura Dooley.