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The winners of the Guernsey International Poetry Competition 2014-2015 – part of the Guernsey Literary Festival – have been announced.
First, second and third places in the ‘Open Category’ were awarded to Hugh Sullivan, Paul Francis and Pat Borthwick, winning them £600, £400, and £200 respectively along with the opportunity to gain exposure for their work.
With a number of other entries selected across the three categories – ‘Channel Islands’, ‘Overseas’ and ‘Young Entrants’ – the winning poets will now get the chance to see their “poems on the move” around the island. A total of 33 poems will be displayed on the island’s buses and at various public locations as a continuation of the Poems on the Buses and Poems on the Move initiative launched five years ago by the Guernsey Arts Commission and the Guernsey Literary Festival.
Now in its third year, the Guernsey International Poetry Competition aims to offer unparalleled exposure for talented writers from the Channel Islands and beyond. This year’s competition was judged by high-profile poet and novelist Sir Andrew Motion, who was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009 and also appeared at last year’s Guernsey Literary Festival.
The competition winners will also be invited to attend an awards ceremony on 16 September, during the Guernsey Literary Festival (16-20 September), where they will be invited to perform a reading of their poems.
The competition, sponsored by Browns Advocates, attracted a high standard of work from across the Channel Islands and beyond according to Guernsey Literary Festival Director Catriona Stares: “We received a great number of brilliant entries from all over the islands, across Europe, and from as far afield as Abu Dhabi, Canada, India and New Zealand but this year’s winning poem, “It Never Rained”, came from Hugh Sullivan in Sussex.
“All 33 of the successful poets deserve acclaim and we hope that this fantastic opportunity to gain exposure for their work will lead to further achievements for all of them. What has made this year’s competition especially meaningful is that Sir Andrew agreed to be the judge. Having such an accomplished and esteemed poet on board has not only helped to spread the word about our Guernsey Poetry Competition but has also provided a unique opportunity for the poets, some as young as 12, to have their work read by a master of the craft.”
More information on the competition and the Guernsey Literary Festival can be found online at www.guernseyliteraryfestival.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/guernseyliteraryfestival and by following @GuernseyLitFest or @Poemsonthemove on Twitter.
