Wells Festival of Literature
International Poetry Competition
2008
List of Short-Listed Poems and Poets in random order
The short-listed poems were kindly judged by the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion
Who commented as follows:
"It was a pleasure to read the poems shortlisted for the Wells poetry competition. All the poems I saw showed the kind of devotion to looking and listening that are essential to the creation of all good writing, and many of them also made use of form. In the end I chose as the winners those poems that seemed to be the most brightly illuminated by concentration of language and tender attentiveness to the world (which, in the case of the overall winner, has a good deal of amusement built into its compression). Not everyone can win prizes in a venture such as this, but everyone can and should feel that they have gained something for themselves as they have added something to the experience of others.
All good wishes"
Click here to read more about Andrew Motion
Click here to read the winning poems
|
Names |
TOWN |
Poem |
Prize |
| Lucy Lepchani | Ashburton Devon | An Armada of Aunties | First |
| Margaret Eddershaw | Nafplion Greece | Navigating the Night | Second |
| Margaret Speak | York Yorkshire | Vivaldi's Bow | Third |
| Stuart Nunn | Chipping Sodbury Glos | Displaced Persons, 1945 | Wyvern Prize |
| Geraldine Pine | Faversham Kent | Castanets | |
| Christopher Paine | Haverhill Suffolk | I Wish I'd Looked after Matisse | |
| Duncan Brewer | Oxford | Bedtime Lullaby | |
| Ronald Tamplin | Exeter Devon | River | |
| Martin Olsson | North Tawton Devon | Fruits of the Spirit | |
| Alec Linstead | Wimbledon London | From the Lower Floor | |
| Philip Hurst | Honiton Devon | Lie of the Land | |
| Jane Williams | Wells Somerset | Such as I Have | |
| Elizabeth Rowe | Yelverton Devon | An Introduction to Child Pruning | |
| Nick Morgan | Northallerton Yorkshire | Cotman | |
| J.S. Watts | Bassingbourne Herts | Bonedancing | |
| Sara Ridgely | High Wycombe Bucks | National Service | |
| Robert Seatter | London | Pip | |
| Mary Woodward | St Albans Herts | The Acacia Stump | |
| Jane Williams | Wells Somerset | The Mobility of Roses | |
| Rosie Jackson | Frome Somerset | Persephone | |
| Miles Gibson | Burford Oxfordshire | Field | |
| Janet Beardsall | Ottery St Mary Devon | On the Edge | |
| Ray Givans | Belfast | John Donne: Mistress | |
| Liz Matthews | Port St Mary Isle of Man | Love Tokens | |
| Stuart Nunn | Chipping Sodbury Glos | On Catbells |