Julia Bird (Poetry School Staff)The manuscripts are dog-eared and the Judges dog-tired, but we are now delighted to be able to make the final Judges’ announcement in our Primers publishing and mentoring scheme.
From the origianal submissions of about 350 poets, the four writers who we are going to take forward to publication with Nine Arches Press are …
… so many congratulations to them!
Eagle-eyed followers will note that originally the Primers scheme was to identify three poets, but Judges Jane Commane and Kathryn Maris report that the quality of the shortlist and the chemistry of the selected writers this year was such that the Primers volume will now contain the work of these four poets.
Jane adds ‘It has been a great journey for myself and Kathryn Maris as selecting editors, that has ended not in only resounding agreement on our choices, but an unexpected and rather wonderful total of four very talented finalists who each demonstrated a wide spectrum of subject, approach and voice. We’ve been much impressed by the quality and the range of the poetry we’ve been reading, and as you can imagine these kind of decisions are reached only after a hours of reading and re-reading, list making and much consideration and conversation about the merits, possibilities and promise of each shortlisted collection. A tricky task maybe, but it’s been most enjoyable to read and consider all of these poems. Thank you to each shortlisted poet – you all gave us so much to think about, and all did so well to make it through to the final ten. Ultimately, we both feel these four finalists will make for fascinating reading – each bringing their own essential elements and make for a vibrant and distinct chemistry in our first publication, Primers Volume 1’
Congratulations to these four writers and to the six shortlistees (Jo Young, Kate Davis, Ken Evans, Louise Ordish, Mark Cooper and Roderic Vincent) – and a big thank you to everyone who entered the scheme back in July. It’s always a leap of faith to send your poems out into the world, and some poems do have to hop about a bit until they find their home. We hope the success of Geraldine, Katie, Lucy and Maureen will inspire you to keep writing and keep sending out – and that you’re looking forward to reading the four poets’ forthcoming book as much as we are.
Congratulations Geraldine, Katie, Lucy and Maureen!