Primers Shortlist Announced!

This July, we set up a virtual in-tray and invited submissions to a new publishing and mentoring programme in association with Nine Arches Press. Our Primers scheme will find three new poets whose work we’d like to foster, publish and promote.

2,316 poems later, Judges Jane Commane and Kathryn Maris are delighted to announce the Primers Shortlist. The following poets sent in six-poem submissions which caught the pair’s attention …

Geraldine Clarkson       Declare

Jo Young                        Firing Pins

Kate Davis                      The Girl Who Forgets How to Walk

Katie Griffiths               Tips for a Post-War Correspondent

Ken Evans                      Approximate Horizons

Louise Ordish                Stepping Stones

Lucy Ingrams                Signs

Mark Cooper                 The Moon Thief

Maureen Cullen            The Thin Place

Roderic Vincent            Lower Lip

… although these following poets were on the Longlist and should also be heartily commended. They are Aled Thomas, Alex Pearce, Ama Bolton, Amy McCauley, Debris Stevenson, Emma McKervey, Fiona Cartwright, Jacqueline Smith, James Nixon, Jean Riley, Jennie Owen, Johanna Gilmour, Kate Taylor, Katie Griffiths, Marjorie Gill, Mary Jean Chan, M J Whistler, Matthew Paul, Melanie Mauthner, Mischa Foster Poole, Rachel Plummer, Rebecca Shore, Richard O’Brien, Robin Houghton, Samuel Prince, Sarah Rudston, Selina Rodrigues, Susannah Hart, Tania Hershman, William Stephenson and Zillah Bowes.

Shortlisted poets are now sending us longer selections of their work, and from these, Jane and Kathryn will pick the three poets who will go on to take part in the full Primers scheme. We’ll be publishing a few of the Shortlisted poems here on CAMPUS over the coming weeks, and you’ll be able to read them all in April next year when the first Primers book is published.

Congratulations to all Longlisted and Shortlisted poets!