Here are the 10 winners, as chosen by judge Billy Collins, to be published in the Fish Anthology 2022
The Anthology will be launched as part of the West Cork Literary Festival, (The Maritime Hotel, Bantry, West Cork – Monday 11th July – 18.00.) All welcome!
The 10 winning poems will be published in the FISH ANTHOLOGY 2022.
1st prize: €1,000
2nd: a week in residence at Anam Cara Writer’s and Artist’s Retreat.
3rd: €200
Billy Collins
Comments on the winning poems are from Billy Collins (below), who we sincerely thank for lending his time and experience to judge the prize.
Congratulations to the ten winning poets, and also to those whose poems made the short-list of 65, and the long-list of 247. Total entry was 2,170.
More about the 10 winning poets (link).
FIRST
The Life Galleries, Kelvingrove
by Susan Shepherd (SCOTLAND)
‘Short, but not as simple as it might appear, “The Life Galleries, Kelvingrove” is a poem in five balanced couplets that captures a moment where two experiences, occurring simultaneously, are folded together. The situation is spelled out in the first line: “I’m face to face with a wildebeest and my daughter is on the phone.” The title lets us know it’s a stuffed wildebeest in a gallery, but the daughter’s “hatred of men starting with her father” is quite real. The poem toggles back and forth between the daughter’s loud torrent and the mother’s fixation with the beast, who began in Kenya and now appears shocked to find himself in Glasgow. The phone call ends and so does the mother’s moment with the animal. Nothing to do but leave the gallery to the larger scene of stressed families and gaudy rink lights. And, then, to write this modest poem, which, like the wildebeest, is a means of steadying the self.’ – Billy Collins
SECOND
Love’s Latitudes
by Judy Crowe (California, USA)
‘Love’s Latitudes is a delightful, lively send-up of instructions from what turns out to be a very unreliable teacher of oil painting. The four uneven stanzas, with long chatty lines, contain an imbalanced mix of the practical (“Lay out your fine brushes”) and the absurd (“Always paint the sides of the canvas” and getting the right color for “thimbleberries”). The level of playfulness rises with the discovery that the pitiable student will be painting over another painting and the final work will somehow be suggestive of love. The reader cannot help enjoy being manipulated by the escalation of silliness climaxing in a most mysterious ending where the flowers called coral bells (titanium white) will actually begin to ring. Only in poetry’. – Billy Collins
THIRD
Retreat
by Katie Griffiths (Surrey, England)
‘Retreat begins as a parody of one of those yoga/mindfulness getaways, which ordinarily would be an easy target were it not for the speaker’s interestingly jangled language and her remembrance of another retreat involving ascetic deprivations and self-flagellation. Or was that in a past life? she wonders. In neatly enjambed tercets, the poem becomes stranger as it finds its way. A favorite sentence is “Thank heavens this was August/ and not the springmelt or we’d have been a limblash/ down to Orgiva.” We’re somewhere in Spain, but we’re really in the hands of an eccentric guide for whom the stars “jigged and hornswaggled.” But after her distorted journey, she is returned by poem’s end to almost normal. Eliminating as her identity both Nefertiti and her military uncle, she becomes herself again: a “mother frazzled to the quick.” A vivid imagination is at play here, and a fine frenzy is the result’. – Billy Collins
HONORARY MENTIONS (in no particular order):
Blue Jeans
by Doreena Jennings (Carlow, Ireland)
Gourds
by Caroline Freeman (Mississippi, USA)
Invisible Sisterhood
by Julia Forster (Machynlleth, Wales)
Stickball Cemetery
by Joshua Sauvageau (Chicago, USA)
Tell me I’m Pretty
by Nicole Adabunu (Iowa, USA)
Perfect Dad
by Jonathan Greenhause (New Jersey, USA)
For Leonard
by Cynthia Snow (Massachusetts, USA)
A LITTLE ABOUT THE WINNERS
Susan Shepherd is a journalist from the Scottish border town of Coldstream, where she likes to neglect housework and watch otters in the Tweed. Her first pamphlet, Wood End (2019) was published by Shoestring Press and she won the Poets & Players “Re-emergence” prize in Dec 2020. She was reunited with her late birth mother in County Cork in 1998 at the age of 37 and rejoices in her Irish roots.
Judy Brackett Crowe lives in the foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada. She believes that the right words in the right places—in chalk or air or song or memory—are worth a thousand pictures. She believes in lilacs, Latin, children, raspberries, summer evenings, the red-shouldered hawk and the sandhill crane, the cottonwood and the Douglas Fir.. Her poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies and in her chapbook Flat Water: Nebraska Poems. www.judybrackett.com
Katie Griffiths grew up in Ottawa, Canada (those winters!) in a family from Northern Ireland. Author of the pamphlet My Shrink is Pregnant (Live Canon 2019) and the collection The Attitudes (Nine Arches Press 2021) she came second in 2018’s National Poetry Competition. Katie is a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, Red Door Poets and also singer-songwriter in A Woman in Goggles – a band which, to date, has neither swum nor skied.
Doreena Jennings, member of the award winning Carlow Writer’s Co-op, travelled in 2016 to Chicago and in 2018 to Sweden, Wales and around Ireland to perform her work. She has been published in the Blue Nib, in several anthologies and and is one of the international poets on the PoetryXhunger website. Recently one of her poems featured on KCLR radio. In April 2022 she was the featured poet in Saturday Independent New Irish Writing.
Caroline R. Freeman is a poet born and raised in Mississippi. After receiving her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland, she has enjoyed teaching writing classes at colleges and universities in Maryland, Tennessee, Texas and Mississippi. She and her husband, Will, are raising a beautiful baby girl, Erin, and a spirited four-year-old, Henry, in Hattiesburg where she aggressively gardens and fancies herself the family historian.
Julia Forster is a novelist and author of non-fiction. She is the Co-Director of The Literary Consultancy’s Being A Writer and she also works as a freelance publicist for independent presses and literary festivals. Having recently completed a Diploma in Spiritual Development, she is training to become a coach, specialising in working with authors and poets. In summer 2023, she’s launching a writers’ retreat outside Machynlleth, mid-Wales, from a north American-style cabin that her husband has been building by hand from larch felled from a woodland opposite the garden.
Joshua Sauvageau was born and reared on the unremarkable plains of rural North Dakota. He joined the US Navy at 20. For six years, he operated a nuclear reactor operator on an aircraft carrier, where, in his downtime, he scribbled poetry in the bilge and against bulkheads. At present, he is a 42-year-old classical music recording engineer in Chicago. He once visited the Corn Palace of Mitchell, South Dakota.
Nicole Adabunu is a young writer interested in the kind of work that devastates. Currently, she is a first year MFA Poetry Candidate and Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the recipient of a 2021 Academy of American Poets University Prize, and her poems have appeared or are forthcoming from Poets.org, Writer’s Digest, and The Greensboro Review. She is an avid hater of dog Instagram accounts written in first person.
Jonathan Greenhause’s first poetry collection, Cupping Our Palms, won the 2022 Birdy Poetry Prize and will be published by Meadowlark Books in the Fall, and his poems have appeared in Banshee, The Moth, Poetry Ireland Review, Southword Journal, and on The Poetry Society website. Jonathan lives in the Statue of Liberty and has been voted “World’s #1 Dad” for 9 consecutive years but graciously declines to accept the prize money, preferring to toil in anonymity.
Cynthia Snow’s writing has appeared in the Massachusetts Review, Peace Review, Plant-Human Quarterly, and elsewhere. Slate Roof Press published Cindy’s chapbook, Small Ceremonies. Her fascination with the 17th Century botanical artist and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian led to a manuscript of poems. Cindy lives in Shelburne Falls and works at Greenfield Community College. In addition to words and stories, she loves to dance, sing, and hike. She likes challenges, especially flower arranging.
SHORT-LIST in alphabetical order. (65 poems. Total entry was 2,170)
TITLE |
FIRST NAME |
LAST NAME |
tell me i’m pretty |
Nicole |
Adabunu |
Our Country |
Vasiliki |
Albedo |
The Monosyllabic Suicide Note |
John |
Alter |
Distance |
Alison |
Binney |
The Last Train |
Andy |
Blackford |
A few beers later |
Peter |
Borchers |
Silent Movie |
John |
Claxton |
Revolutions |
Alan |
Coombe |
At Gullane Bents |
Alexandra |
Corrin-Tachibana |
The day you buy me a Mandarina |
Alexandra |
Corrin-Tachibana |
Safe |
A.M. |
Cousins |
Bone |
A.M. |
Cousins |
Love’s Latitudes |
Judy |
Crowe |
My Mother’s Alligator Pocketbook |
Elizabeth |
Edelglass |
Roadrunner’s Crayon |
Theodore |
Eisenberg |
From Claudia |
David |
Evans |
I Didn’t Know My Father’s Father |
Attracta |
Fahy |
Rear Window |
Frank |
Farrelly |
Resurrection |
Simon |
Fitzwilliam Hall |
Heirloom |
Kate |
Flannery |
Flying north, a war story (revised) |
Stacey |
Forbes |
Invisible Sisterhood |
Julia |
Forster |
Gourds |
Caroline |
Freeman |
My Dad Sent Me and I Got Raped |
Bill |
Garten |
Self Portrait as a Spermatozoon |
Norman |
Goodwin |
The Perfect Dad |
Jonathan |
Greenhause |
Everything, for a Reason |
Jonathan |
Greenhause |
Retreat |
Katie |
Griffiths |
A Trumpeter in Sumy Plays the Ukrainian National Anthem… |
Matt |
Hohner |
At the Missouri Pacific Depot, Where, |
Justin |
Hunt |
Blue Jeans |
Doreena |
Jennings |
Railings |
Doreena |
Jennings |
Secrets of the Gumbo |
karla |
k |
To Abandon A Drowning Man |
Madelyn |
Kennebeck |
An absence of bees |
jane |
killingbeck |
Mr. Smith |
Debbie |
Knight |
I say I want the world to look like poetry again |
K. T. |
Landon |
The Steps of No. 93 |
Peter |
Lindley |
memo to Ginsberg |
Paul |
Lojeski |
The Troubles |
Seán |
Martin |
Sugar Cube |
Aparna |
Mitra |
Wudu |
Ariel |
Mokdad |
The Saoirse-Ronan-Poetry-Plan |
Daniel |
Myers |
The Glam Night |
Beatrice |
Nori |
I Have Kept Your Phone |
Damen |
O’Brien |
Leaving Home at Eighteen |
Eugene |
O´Hare |
All Saints Night |
Patricia |
Osborne |
Sociology |
Kelley |
Pujol |
ON THE EVE OF THE END OF THE WORLD |
Liz |
Purvis |
Ghost Bicycle |
Dilys |
Rose |
Stick ball cemetery |
Joshua |
Sauvageau |
Love |
Robin |
Schwarz |
Petrified |
Diane |
Sexton |
The Life Galleries, Kelvingrove |
Susan |
Shepherd |
Geography Lesson |
Laura |
Shore |
Banana University |
Di |
Slaney |
Petsamo |
Morag |
Smith |
I wear my jewels like a prayer FFP22 |
Morag |
Smith |
For Leonard |
Cynthia |
Snow |
On the Eve of the Piano Exam |
Jean |
Tuomey |
Transformation |
Jean |
Tuomey |
Old Man |
Derval |
Walsh |
The Dogs of Mariupol Address their Former Owners |
Arne |
Weingart |
The Invisible Orchestra |
John |
Williams |
I was never subtle |
Anna |
Woodford |
|
|
|
LONG-LIST in alphabetical order. (247 poems. Total entry was 2,170)
tell me i’m pretty |
Nicole |
Adabunu |
News from Agnieszka/ & Just |
Mara |
Adamitz Scrupe |
Invocation |
George |
Adams |
Our Country |
Vasiliki |
Albedo |
Love is an endurance sport |
Simon |
Alderwick |
Mother |
Kahle |
Alford |
the drama I missed |
Nick |
Allen |
Selfie, Overheard, Afghanistan |
John |
Alter |
The Monosyllabic Suicide Note |
John |
Alter |
Dad |
Nitsa |
Anastasiades |
Spring |
Eliza |
Anise |
Immram |
Philip |
Armstrong |
Sprung Song |
John |
Aske |
The Other Ones |
Ahana |
Banerji |
Coast |
Tom |
Barnett |
The Boatman |
Tom |
Barnett |
Distance |
Alison |
Binney |
Dreams of Becoming a Local Vegetable |
Shell |
Bird |
The Last Train |
Andy |
Blackford |
The oral tradition |
David |
Bleiman |
Ring |
Gerry |
Boland |
Period |
Laurie |
Bolger |
When the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon |
Elizabeth |
Boquet |
A few beers later |
Peter |
Borchers |
By the Book |
Partridge |
Boswell |
The Return |
Partridge |
Boswell |
Forced March |
Paul |
Bregazzi |
Home |
Nora |
Brennan |
Let there be poems |
Liz |
Byrne |
Dinner For Two |
Josh |
Cake |
Alien, 1980 |
Lorraine |
Carey |
Christmas Day 2021 |
Anne |
Casey |
Flow |
Suzanne |
Chick |
Before Magnolia |
John |
Claxton |
Silent Movie |
John |
Claxton |
Halo |
Colette |
Colfer |
The Glider |
Alan |
Coombe |
Revolutions |
Alan |
Coombe |
Lion Child |
Raymond |
Cooney |
Delirium |
Aaron |
Corless |
Keeping Mum |
Alexandra |
Corrin-Tachibana |
Julie Andrews’ Honesty |
Alexandra |
Corrin-Tachibana |
Snapshots from Beck Hide |
Alexandra |
Corrin-Tachibana |
At Gullane Bents |
Alexandra |
Corrin-Tachibana |
The day you buy me a Mandarina Duck |
Alexandra |
Corrin-Tachibana |
Jewel of a Flower |
Christine |
Cote |
Fairy Tales |
Christine |
Cote |
Safe |
A.M. |
Cousins |
Bone |
A.M. |
Cousins |
The Prospect |
Ellen |
Cranitch |
Love’s Latitudes |
Judy |
Crowe |
A 1981 Sunny, Summer Vacation at Minehead Lighthouse, Ring Old Parish, County Waterford |
Leo |
Crowley |
My Heart Races |
Brittany |
Curran |
Tradition |
Julian |
Debreuil |
Do You Mind? |
Gerald |
DiPego |
Eyass |
Hugh |
Dunkerley |
Fire Lanterns |
Hugh |
Dunkerley |
Leftovers of Life |
Michelle |
Dupont |
My Mother’s Alligator Pocketbook |
Elizabeth |
Edelglass |
Roadrunner’s Crayon |
Theodore |
Eisenberg |
What the angel says |
Nadine |
El-Enany |
The women who wait |
Jennie |
Ensor |
From Claudia |
David |
Evans |
Moon Poem |
Diane |
Fahey |
I Didn’t Know My Father’s Father |
Attracta |
Fahy |
Regolith |
Jessamyn |
Fairfield |
Rear Window |
Frank |
Farrelly |
When My Mother Went into the Woods |
Marian |
Fielding |
Resurrection |
Simon |
Fitzwilliam Hall |
Heirloom |
Kate |
Flannery |
Flying north, a war story (revised) |
Stacey |
Forbes |
The Mentor of the Weak |
Cy |
Forrest |
Some surprising things I learnt |
Julia |
Forster |
When I looked up an ex-boyfriend’s |
Julia |
Forster |
Invisible Sisterhood |
Julia |
Forster |
Gourds |
Caroline |
Freeman |
Me (Autistic and Unsociable) |
Naoise |
Gale |
Disassociation |
Sandra |
Galton |
Treecreeper |
Josephine |
Gardiner |
After Midnight |
Bill |
Garten |
I Lost |
Bill |
Garten |
My Dad Sent Me and I Got Raped |
Bill |
Garten |
The Night Before |
Denise |
Garvey |
Aftermath |
Denise |
Garvey |
Wind creatures scratch the surface of Europa |
Brandi |
George |
Latched |
Ellen |
Girardeau |
I Didn’t Know |
Emma |
Goldman-Sherman |
Self Portrait as a Spermatozoon |
Norman |
Goodwin |
Magnolias |
George |
Grace |
Romantic Heroes |
Zoe |
Green |
Because Writing More Poems Can Wait |
Jonathan |
Greenhause |
The Perfect Dad |
Jonathan |
Greenhause |
Everything, for a Reason |
Jonathan |
Greenhause |
Retreat |
Katie |
Griffiths |
In Heaven |
Krishnanand |
Guptar |
Under and After All |
Peter |
Hankins |
Such pure leaps drenched grass such |
Michele Pizarro |
Harman |
Everything is waiting for you |
John |
Heath |
Deer Encounter |
Mary |
Hegarty |
When I die |
Alex |
Heron |
Sunflowers |
Matt |
Hohner |
A Trumpeter in Sumy Plays the |
Matt |
Hohner |
Midnight Walk |
Laurie |
Holding |
A Cage in Search of a Bird (Revised Version) |
Kathleen |
Holliday |
We Can’t Predict the Last Time |
Lana |
Holman |
Poem in Praise of the Hinge |
Kelly |
Houle |
Argentina |
Justin |
Hunt |
As I Remember It, Mom |
Justin |
Hunt |
How Time Works on the Southern Plains |
Justin |
Hunt |
What We Didn’t Know |
Justin |
Hunt |
At the Missouri Pacific Depot, Where, in 1931, |
Justin |
Hunt |
Goatskin |
Rebecca |
Irvin |
Blue Jeans |
Doreena |
Jennings |
Railings |
Doreena |
Jennings |
Paris Moon |
Dorothy |
Judd |
Secrets of the Gumbo |
karla |
k |
Two is Company |
Sreekanth |
Kartha |
To Abandon A Drowning Man |
Madelyn |
Kennebeck |
Even Though He Is Not Here |
James Allan |
Kennedy |
Pressure’s Down Boys |
Peter Ualrig |
KENNEDY |
For Bob, on his 80th |
Simon |
Kensdale |
An absence of bees |
Jane |
Killingbeck |
Great Grandma Claire |
Debbie |
Knight |
Mr. Smith |
Debbie |
Knight |
Baldwin Beach |
Mel |
Konner |
Frederica |
Alison |
Kreiss |
To the Boys in My Niece’s Fourth-grade Class |
K. T. |
Landon |
I say I want the world to look like poetry again |
K. T. |
Landon |
The First Time, Reclaimed |
Camille |
Lebel |
Not Knowing |
Peter |
Lindley |
When Time Stood Still |
Peter |
Lindley |
The Steps of No. 93 |
Peter |
Lindley |
Memo to Ginsberg |
Paul |
Lojeski |
The Landing of Mars Perseverance |
Angela |
Long |
Given the State of Thing |
Sandra |
Longley |
The Raiment of Saints |
Michael |
Lyle |
The Body |
Michael |
Lyle |
Drift |
Kilcoyne |
Marian |
Test Able, Bikini Atoll |
Jonathan |
Marks |
No Word |
Jonathan |
Marks |
Detachment |
Jonathan |
Marks |
Sequelae to misplaced elbows & other violations |
Shey |
Marque |
Irrecoverable Children |
Shey |
Marque |
Insects Turning into Women |
Sophia |
Marshall |
White Rhyme |
Sophia |
Marshall |
One Time Me and the Dog Swam With |
Michael |
Martin |
The Troubles |
Seán |
Martin |
What I Do |
Wende |
McCabe |
Knollwood Way |
Wende |
McCabe |
Jam |
Aparna |
Mitra |
Sugar Cube |
Aparna |
Mitra |
this is not a protest poem |
Katrina |
Moinet |
Wudu |
Ariel |
Mokdad |
there was a boy |
Ewan |
Monaghan |
When I think about leaving this body behind– |
Judith |
Montgomery |
Pentonvillanelle |
Michaela |
Morgan |
Small Steps |
Michaela |
Morgan |
Rewilding |
Petrova |
Mulvey |
Icon of the Black Madonna |
Elisabeth |
Murawski |
The Saoirse-Ronan-Poetry-Plan |
Daniel |
Myers |
The Glam Night |
Beatrice |
Nori |
Progress |
Rachel |
Norton |
For Rain |
Lani |
O’ Hanlon |
Natural Causes |
Damen |
O’Brien |
Things Fall Apart |
Damen |
O’Brien |
Night Photos |
Damen |
O’Brien |
I Have Kept Your Phone |
Damen |
O’Brien |
In among the ruins, love |
Denise |
O’Hagan |
Look Away |
Jamie |
O’Halloran |
A Week in Portugal |
Eugene |
O’Hare |
Letter to my Mother, Five Years Sober |
Eugene |
O’Hare |
Spigot (In Memory of Tommy O’Neill, 1936-2020) |
Michael |
O’Neill |
Sacristy |
Michael |
O’Neill |
Leaving Home at Eighteen |
Eugene |
O´Hare |
Seventy-One Seconds |
Rena |
Ong |
February, 2019; Lake Michigan |
Chloe |
Orrock |
Hecate |
Chloe |
Orrock |
All Saints Night |
Patricia |
Osborne |
Time |
Penny |
Ouvry |
Gold Dust |
Penny |
Ouvry |
Fish Gods |
Ben Rhys |
Palmer |
Way To Go, Dad |
Tony |
Peyser |
Pussy Riot |
John |
Piggott |
Minna |
Helen |
Pinoff |
My Mother’s Parachute |
Eleanor |
Porter |
Sociology |
Kelley |
Pujol |
On the Eve of the End of the World |
Liz |
Purvis |
Hyperemesis Gravidarum |
Shahar |
Raveh |
My Brothers |
Kathleen |
Reddy |
When Love Shows Its Hand |
Jennifer |
Reid |
A Horse Departs |
Bill |
Richardson |
Life |
Sabel |
Rideau |
Like |
Jacqui |
Ritchie |
The Word Jumper |
Jacqui |
Ritchie |
Some New Kind of Endlessness |
Richard |
Robbins |
Against Myth |
Richard |
Robbins |
Ghost Bicycle |
Dilys |
Rose |
Stick ball cemetery |
Joshua |
Sauvageau |
Present Tense |
Richard |
Scarsbrook |
Love |
Robin |
Schwarz |
Last train home |
James |
Scoles |
Unspoken |
Louise |
Scott |
Million lights |
Deepsha |
Seeruthen |
Petrified |
Diane |
Sexton |
Stray Cats |
Jacquelyn |
Shah |
The Parsonage |
Penny |
Sharman |
Even in Pristina we get ready for winter |
Lesley |
Sharpe |
The Life Galleries, Kelvingrove |
Susan |
Shepherd |
Geography Lesson |
Laura |
Shore |
This is You in the Sundance Catalogue |
Shoshauna |
Shy |
Full Disclosure |
Saudamini |
Siegrist |
My Soul and Me |
Heather |
Silverman |
Banana University |
Di |
Slaney |
Petsamo |
Morag |
Smith |
I wear my jewels like a prayer FFP22 |
Morag |
Smith |
Dementia, or Drop the Quarter and Play? |
Amy |
Snodgrass |
For Leonard |
Cynthia |
Snow |
The Right To Age |
Heather |
Soderquist |
This service includes all removable components |
Emma |
Storr |
My Daughter Left Home Yesterday |
Jasper |
Swann |
The Clocks have Changed |
Mary |
Tate |
On the Eve of the Piano Exam |
Jean |
Tuomey |
Transformation |
Jean |
Tuomey |
A Visit to the Chinese Visa Application Centre, |
Alice |
Twemlow |
My Old Subaru Outback |
Jesse |
Vasquez |
Watermark |
Gerd |
Wagner |
Actor |
rob |
wallis |
Actor |
Rob |
Wallis |
Then |
Derval |
Walsh |
Old Man |
Derval |
Walsh |
In the Woods the Mosses Speak to the Trees |
DOLORES |
WALSHE |
The Dogs of Mariupol Address their Former Owners |
Arne |
Weingart |
Owen’s Confession |
John |
Williams |
Waka |
John |
Williams |
The Invisible Orchestra |
John |
Williams |
This Body, Not Another |
Brad |
Winters |
Cancer Man |
Amaury |
Wonderling |
Vimto |
Amaury |
Wonderling |
I was never subtle |
Anna |
Woodford |
There Once Was A Girl |
Mariam |
Yacoob |