Following a wonderful evening of poetry at our TASTE competition celebration event on 10 May, we are thrilled to announce the final results of our first competition.
The First Prize goes to Smriti Verma for her poem My favourite thing to write about. Second Prize is awarded to Estelle Price for A last meal with my father and Third Prize winner is John Gallas, with ábhar blas (a matter of taste sonnet).
To read the winning poems and the judges’ comments, click here.
Commenting on the competition overall, the judges said “The poems that made it to our combined shortlist of twenty all managed to perform that essential trick of making a bridge between the personal and the universal, of communicating something that belongs to both the world of the poem’s speaker, and the world of its reader.
‘Our choice of first, second and third was unanimous….we spent time not only discussing each poem, but also – crucially – reading each poem out loud. It was through this deeply enjoyable process that we were able to establish clearly which poems startled us, engaged us, and above all moved us the most.”
Seven poems were commended by the judges, submitted by poets Leo Boix, Marka Rifat, Michael Brown, Mariah Whelan, Andrew George, Siobhan Ward, and Dulcie Shaw.
As a result of receiving so many high-quality entries, the judges also decided to add a list of impressive runners-up to the competition. Congratulations to each of of our winners, commended poets, and runners-up on their delicious interpretations of our theme, Taste.
Winning poems
First place: Smriti Verma for ‘My favourite thing to write about’
Second place: Estelle Price for ‘A last meal with my father’
Third place: John Gallas for ‘ábhar blas (a matter of taste sonnet)’
Commended poems
Leo Boix, ‘A Latin American Sonnet XCV’
Michael Brown, ‘Visiting Hour’
Andrew George, ‘The New Italian’
Marka Rifat, ‘Sweet harvest’
Dulcie Shaw, ‘Teenage Nostos’
Siobhan Ward, ‘Table Manners’
Mariah Whelan, ‘Hunger’
Runners-up
Hanne Busck-Nielsen, ‘Our table’
Charlotte Carnegie, ‘A spoonful of sugar’
Cat Cochrane, ‘Sensed’
Bronte Cooke, ‘If the Virgin Mary came for the bank holiday’
Deborah Finding, ‘isn’t it beautiful?’
Miles Gibson, ‘Missed Calls’
Sarah James/Leavesley, ‘rum and raisin’
Jennifer A. McGowan, ‘Her Own Making’
Rency Jumaoas Raquid, ‘The Snail’
Jack Richardson, ‘Dry Goods’
You can read the winning poems and the judges’ comments on the individual winning poems here.
We would of course like to say a huge thank you to our judges Alan Buckley, Vanessa Lampert and Jenny Lewis for dedicating their time, experience and sensitivity to reviewing over 200 poems we received for our first poetry competition. Many thanks also go to our prize sponsors Lula’s Ethiopian and Eritrean Restaurant, Oxford Poetry Library Patrons and Picturehouse Cinemas for helping us to reward our winners.
And thank you so much to all the fantastic poets who entered the competition, for the shortlisted poets who read their poems so brilliantly at our celebration evening and for those who couldn’t be there on the night but trusted the judges to read on their behalf.
What next?
The winning and commended poems are featured on the OPL website for all to read here and enjoy, and will also be displayed in the Poetry Library space over the summer – watch this space for details!