2023 Open Poetry Competition Shortlist
Congratulations to our 2023 Open Poetry Shortlisted Entries
| Anniversary | Kathryn Bevis |
| Barbie’s Dream House | Sophie Mae |
| Biding her time | SMH Davies |
| Conflation | Noriko Konuma |
| Divinity | Charles Evans |
| Golden Carpets | Henry Tydeman |
| Horse Breezes | John Gallas |
| I wanted to write but I never had a pen | Jennifer Pescod |
| King Hamlet | Lev Crofts |
| Limpet | Elizabeth Rowe |
| Lovers of Valdaro | Hannah Bowness-Major |
| Migraine I Think I Love You | Emily White |
| My Father’s Shoes | Rhona Stephens |
| Oxford Blue | Julie Evans |
| Picking Blackberries | Marilyn Timms |
| Starlit Eyes of Blue | John D. Kelly |
| Stoney Littleton Long Barrow | John Sewell |
| Tattoo | SMH Davies |
| The Castles We Built | Nicola Keller |
| The Dishwasher’s Revolt | Christopher James |
| The Memory Hive | Nick Salaman |
| The Screaming Man | Tim Hall |
| The Editor | David Gilbert |
| Venom | Erin Endrei |
| We Sat Not Talking | Jennifer Pescod |
| Who Am I | Helen Orchard |
The Open Poetry competition will be judged by William Sieghart, founder of the Forward Prizes, the UK’s biggest poetry prizes. William also instigated National Poetry Day which is now celebrated in the UK every October.
Last year William joined our anniversary Festival prescribing the audience with poetry to heal all ills. He has spent most of his adult life promoting poetry and its beneficial powers and has been dispensing poetry prescriptions since his Poetry Pharmacy began in 2014. As someone who has listened to thousands of problems and prescribed poetic remedies for all of them, he will make an excellent judge for this year’s Open Poetry. His many books include The Poetry Pharmacy and The Poetry Pharmacy Returns as well as 100 Prized Poems – twenty five years of the Forward Books.
First Prize £1000! Second and third prizes – £500 and £250 respectively. Plus £100 for a local poet.
Prize Giving and Poetry Reading takes place on Monday 30 October 2023 as part of the Festival.
Book your free seat here.