This year’s Prize has been awarded by adjudicator Maria Jastrzębska to Ron Scowcroft for his poem ‘Greylags in Fog’.
Originally from Greater Manchester, Ron has lived in the Lancaster area since 1985. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies and on literary websites. They have also featured in exhibitions by artists Jayne Simpson and John Morrison and been adapted for video by Morph Films. His pamphlet Moon Garden was published by Wayleave Press in 2014. Ron is a founder member of Lancaster based April Poets.
Of his winning poem Maria Jastrzębska commented: ‘‘Greylags in Fog’, was a poem I returned to for its tenderness. I read it as a love poem. Between people and also between people and nature, the animal world. Everyone can identify with that sense of being lost in a fog – the utter relief of being found. I loved the backward and forwards of the poem’s ‘call and response’. It’s a poem written with the utmost simplicity and spareness capturing something as intangible as a moment. It doesn’t preach or try to convince but tells its story with great lightness of touch.’
Ron wins the sum of 250 guineas and a two-year subscription to The Frogmore Papers.
This year’s runners-up were Simon Maddrell with ‘The snow leopard bites its own tail’ and Chloe Balcomb with ‘Blether’. Other poets shortlisted were Sarah Barr, Lia Brooks, Wendy Klein, Rebekah Miron and Rosamund Taylor.
All shortlisted poems will be published in the September edition of The Frogmore Papers, available for £5.00 (post free) from:
The Frogmore Press, 21 Mildmay Road, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1PJ.