Poetry Prize 2024: Results
Here are the winners of the Fish Poetry Prize 2024, selected by Billy Collins, to be published in the Fish Anthology 2024.
Below you will find short biographies of the winners and the Long and Short Lists.
From all of us at Fish we congratulate the poets whose poems made it here. There were 2,164 entries and competition was very tough.
Billy Collins.
The Fish Anthology will be launched as part of the West Cork Literary Festival, (Marino Church, Bantry, West Cork – Monday 15th July – 18.30.) All are welcome!
FIRST PRIZE:
No, I am not a Robot (An Ekphrastic Poem of Sorts) by Brooke Herter James
SECOND PRIZE:
Writing About the Invisible by Mary K O’Melveny
THIRD PRIZE:
Early Tintoretto at the Accademia by Rosalind Brackenbury
HONORARY MENTIONS (In no particular order):
A Clarification by Toby Litt
This poem asks where violence begins by Heidi Williamson
Small White Sphere by Philip Rösel Baker
Uncle Tony Fishing, Muckross Lake by Josh Geffin
Hearsay by Marion Quednau
Two Hours Before Lone Ranger by Kathy Clayden
June Wedding in the West of Ireland:
North of Connemara, East of the Ocean’s Waves by Linda Nemec Foster
Brooke Herter James is the author of four poetry chapbooks, a children’s picture book and a poetry/prose/photography collection. Her poems have appeared in various journals and anthologies. She lives with her husband in a small village in the green mountains of Vermont.
Mary K O’Melveny, a happily retired labor rights lawyer of Irish descent, lives with her wife near Woodstock, New York. Mary’s poetry has appeared in numerous print and on-line literary journals and anthologies. Her recent collection, Flight Patterns (Kelsay Books 2023) was nominated for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Merging Star Hypotheses (2020), her second book, was a semi-finalist for The Washington Prize sponsored by The Word Works. Coming soon: an on-line music-themed collection from Jerry Jazz Musician. For more: http://www.marykomelvenypoet.com.
Rosalind Brackenbury is English and lives in Key West with her American husband. Her poetry has been published by Taxus Press in the UK and Hanging Loose in the US. Her latest novel, “Bone Whispers” was published in February, 2024. She was Key West’s second Poet Laureate. She likes swimming, walking and exploring new places, and is leading a writing retreat in June 2024 at the Flores Retreat Centre in north-western Spain.
Toby Litt is a writer and environmental activist. His novels include Corpsing, Ghost Story, Patience and A Writer’s Diary. His run on the comic Dead Boy Detectives is the basis for the 8-part Netflix series. Toby is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton. He is a member of English PEN and editor of the XR Writers Rebel website. When he is not writing, Toby likes sitting doing nothing.
Heidi Williamson is a poet, writing tutor, and mentor. She runs a Reading Round group for the Royal Literary Fund sharing celebrated stories and poems with library users in Norwich. She also teaches for the Poetry Society, Poetry School, The Writing Coach, and National Centre for Writing. Through the magic of Zoom, she enjoys working online with poets world-wide. Her three Bloodaxe collections are Electric Shadow, The Print Museum, and Return by Minor Road. www.heidiwilliamsonpoet.com
Philip Rösel Baker is an Anglo-German writer living with his wife, Maria, under dark night skies near a remote hamlet in East Anglia. As well as writing, he loves table tennis and plays in a village club every Monday. Recently, he has been intrigued to notice that the practice of Zen mindfulness improves his game as well as his poetry. He performs his poems regularly at the Soapbox sessions at the Steamboat pub in Ipswich.
Josh Geffin is a folk musician and writer from Dorset, based in London. He is currently working towards a masters in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Josh’s often playful poems explore themes of mindfulness, memory and belonging. His poetry has been published in The Rialto, Acumen, Allegro and The Friday Poem. He won second prize in the Jack Clemo Poetry Competition 2023 and has also been commissioned to write poems for Montcalm Hotels.
Marion Quednau lives on Canada’s unruly west coast, known for its protests, parades and off-the-path hiking. Her poetry has won numerous awards and appeared in Best Canadian Poetry 2019, (ed. Rob Taylor, Biblioasis). Her recent work includes the collection, Paradise, Later Years (Caitlin, 2018), and her short fictions, Sunday Drive to Gun Club Road (Nightwood, 2021), described as both "dark" and "hilarious" She thrives on notes of juxtaposition and surprise within the daily conundrum.
Kathy Clayden was born in Cambridgeshire, and was raised ‘on the move’ in Bedfordshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire and Sussex. Into adulthood this morphed into living in countries across the globe as is reflected in her ‘portmanteau’ career. From childhood, Kathy has written and sketched. Poetic success in the 1990s and 2000s ended when the muse took a holiday. Kathy has worked hard to reconnect with her poetic self. She lives in Oxford, does ceramics, has a partner of 46 years.
Linda Nemec Foster lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was selected to serve as that city’s first Poet Laureate (2003-05). Her 12 collections of poetry include, The Blue Divide, The Lake Michigan Mermaid (2019 Michigan Notable Book), and Amber Necklace from Gdansk. Her book of flash fiction, Bone Country, was recently published. Foster has been honored with numerous awards including first prize in the 2023 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest sponsored by The Poetry Center (USA).
SHORT-LIST in alphabetical order. (57 poems. Total entry was 2,164)
|
NAME |
TITLE |
|
|
|
|
Alinda Wasner |
Little Did I Know of Birds and grasses |
|
Andrew Murphy |
The Why About That |
|
Brett Ashley |
Nocturne Mashup |
|
brooke james |
No, I Am Not a Robot |
|
Christopher Watson |
Eternity on Dean Street |
|
Christopher Watson |
Museo del Oro |
|
Dena Fakhro |
Not long after the Baghdad Café |
|
Derval Walsh |
Unsmiling |
|
Di Slaney |
Curse of the Orchard House |
|
Di Slaney |
Moat |
|
Di Slaney |
Finished knitting |
|
Elise Ball |
Daffodils |
|
Gary V. Powell |
Schwinn |
|
Heidi Williamson |
This poem asks where violence begins |
|
Heidi Williamson |
Wordle as fugue state |
|
Ingrid Anderson |
Repetitive motion |
|
James Kelly |
Mabeliss Takes Your Order |
|
James Kelly |
Finders Keepers |
|
James Lowell |
Boy in the Well |
|
James Lowell |
The Irish Lumper |
|
Jed Myers |
Spirit Letter to Norman |
|
Jon Escher |
The Third Floor |
|
Josh Geffin |
Uncle Tony Fishing, Muckross Lake |
|
Judith Allnatt |
Bubbles |
|
Julian Wakeling |
A Reprieve |
|
Karina Holm |
Birthday cake |
|
karla k morton |
Something |
|
Kate Teves |
The Fool |
|
Kathy Clayden |
Two Hours Before Lone Ranger |
|
Kegan Swyers |
Rejoice! |
|
Lana Holman |
Moment Interrupted |
|
Lana Holman |
Disappointed Angel |
|
Linda Nemec Foster |
June Wedding |
|
Liz Kendall |
A matter of trees and time |
|
Lori Jakiela |
One Day When He Was Dying |
| Marion Quednau |
Hearsay |
|
Martin Clayton |
Insomnia |
|
Martyn Golding |
Very Sick |
|
Mary O’Melveny |
Writing About the Invisible |
|
Olga Balaeva |
A Date with Connemara |
|
Patricia Osborne |
The night carer |
|
Patricia Sheppard |
Sequelae |
|
Philip Rösel Baker |
Small White Sphere |
|
Rekha Mehra |
Shortchanging the Next Occupants |
|
Rita Geil |
Lyons Creek Trail |
|
Róisín Ní Neachtain |
I see you knew my small betray… |
|
Rosalind Brackenbury |
Early Tintoretto at the Accademia |
|
Sabrina Wolfe |
When I went back, nothing was the same |
|
Sally Furneaux |
Lost Song |
|
Scott Dorsch |
Your Eyes Were Fists and They Were Reaching |
|
Simon Petty |
Packing |
|
Sinead McClure |
Before, during and after my husband’s death, the birds came |
|
stacey forbes |
When West Virginia speaks its … |
|
Stephanie Feeney |
Pink Load |
|
Steve Xerri |
housefly metaphysics |
|
Susanna Lang |
A Clattering of Jackdaws |
|
Tania Dain |
Red Witch |
|
Toby Litt |
A Clarification |
LONG-LIST in alphabetical order. ( 254 poems. Total entry was 2,164)
|
NAME |
TITLE |
|
|
|
|
Alan Coombe |
The rigging shop |
|
Alexandra Tyndale |
Traces |
|
Alinda Wasner |
Little Did I Know of Birds and grasses |
|
Alison Gorman |
Cherry |
|
Alison Powell |
“This House Does Not Exist” |
|
Allen Shadow |
I Crossed You |
|
Allie Wilson |
Last Rites |
|
Andrew Murphy |
The Why About That |
|
Andy Price |
Larghetto |
|
Angela Costi |
A Revised History of the Balcony |
|
Angela McCabe |
Washingbay Lough Neagh |
|
Anjanette Delgado |
Sunset Therapy |
|
Ann VanVolkenburgh Chang |
Today At Running Club |
|
Ann VanVolkenburgh Chang |
This Is Just A Honey Do List |
|
Anne Berkeley |
Daphne |
|
Anne Gerard |
Insomnia Nocturne |
|
Anne Gleeson |
The Carer |
|
Anthony Costello |
Why Lee Brown Left |
|
Attracta Fahy |
1. Scythe |
|
Avril Erskine |
Barfly |
|
Barbara Ford |
Starbucks |
|
Bill Richardson |
Fact Fiction August 28 2017 |
|
Billy Fenton |
Raven |
|
Brett Ashley |
Nocturne Mashup |
|
brooke james |
No, I Am Not a Robot |
|
Bruce Meyer |
Slippers |
|
C. Mikal Oness |
Take a Letter |
|
Celia Chavez |
The Borderlands |
|
Charles Jennings |
Nostalgia Is So Yesterday |
|
Charles Jennings |
Recurring Dream |
|
Christopher Genzardi |
Do Overs |
|
Christopher North |
Faint Echo of Myriad People Misremembered |
|
Christopher Watson |
Eternity on Dean Street |
|
Christopher Watson |
Museo del Oro |
|
Christopher Watson |
Salinas |
|
Christopher Watson |
Smoke Tree |
|
Clare O’Reilly |
Life Saver |
|
Clare O’Reilly |
Aobh |
|
Colleen Newquist |
Sunday Dinner |
|
Damen O’Brien |
Cement |
|
Damen O’Brien |
Heart in a Box |
|
Damen O’Brien |
Alarm |
|
Deirdre Anne Hines |
Gloria |
|
Deirdre Anne Hines |
Bigfoot |
|
Deirdre Anne Hines |
American Relatives |
|
Deirdre Anne Hines |
What The Raccoon Told Me |
|
Deirdre Anne Hines |
If you want to know the future look at the past |
|
deirdre devally |
Toes to The Daisies |
|
deirdre devally |
The Head Gardener Walks the Avenues, Glasnevin Cemetery |
|
Dena Fakhro |
Not long after the Baghdad Café |
|
Derval Walsh |
Unsmiling |
|
Di Slaney |
Curse of the Orchard House |
|
Di Slaney |
Moat |
|
Di Slaney |
Finished knitting |
|
Dila Toplusoy Gunay |
‘Anthropo–’ (human) + ‘–cene’ (new) |
|
Donald Wildman |
Night |
|
Elisabeth Lorentzsen |
Sexy Saturday |
|
Elisabeth Lorentzsen |
Printed Piece of Punditry |
|
Elisabeth Murawski |
Grounded |
|
Elise Ball |
Daffodils |
|
Emma Wells |
Lettered |
|
EUGENE O’HARE |
Things She Told The End of Life Nurse |
|
EUGENE O’HARE |
Eating a peach After Midnight |
|
Faye Stevenson |
Tinkle, Tinkle, Brittle Stars |
|
Fiona Bennett |
The Reset |
|
Fiona Shillito |
I said let’s be lovers |
|
Frances Gapper |
Tanked |
|
Gary V. Powell |
Schwinn |
|
George Drew |
Light Falls at a Murderous Angle |
|
Geraldine Clarkson |
Loophole |
|
Geraldine Clarkson |
A wind comes up from Coleridge |
|
Gerda Stevenson |
Wintering Bees |
|
Gerda Stevenson |
Coffined |
|
Gerda Stevenson |
Red Umbrella |
|
Gerda Stevenson |
One Word |
|
Gerda Stevenson |
Getting to Know You in Stoke |
|
Gillian Dawson |
On the Iona Ferry |
|
Gloria Gonsalves |
In The World of Censoring Words, the Chickens Will do |
|
Gwynne Sawtelle |
More Than One Way To Be A Bird |
|
Hannah Morphet |
Old friend |
|
Heidi Williamson |
This poem asks where violence begins |
|
Heidi Williamson |
Wordle as fugue state |
|
Helen Arthur |
My garden’s a picture |
|
Hugh Dunkerley |
Shaving My Father |
|
Ingrid Anderson |
Repetitive motion |
|
James Kelly |
Mabeliss Takes Your Order |
|
James Kelly |
Finders Keepers |
|
James Lowell |
Boy in the Well |
|
James Lowell |
The Irish Lumper |
|
James Lowell |
All Aboard |
|
James Lowell |
Clotheslines |
|
James Lowell |
The Coping Stone |
|
James Lowell |
The Last Eunuch of China |
|
James Lowell |
The Last Pencil |
|
James Lowell |
The Millpond |
|
James Lowell |
The Pheasant King |
|
Jane Newberry |
Shepherd’s Hey |
|
Jed Myers |
Spirit Letter to Norman |
|
Jed Myers |
Persistence Theory |
|
Jed Myers |
Can’t Be Far |
|
Jed Myers |
Refugee Bandit Birthday Rag |
|
Jed Myers |
In a Growling Wind |
|
Jennifer Dunlop |
A Song Inside |
|
Jennifer Dunlop |
Grace |
|
Jenny Pollak |
Things fall down |
|
Jeremiah Ward |
Cult |
|
Jessamyn Fairfield |
The Apartment |
|
Jet McDonald |
The thing about hitchhiking back from Amsterdam |
|
John Paul Caponigro |
Everyone In Your Dream Is You |
|
Jon Escher |
The Third Floor |
|
Jonas Tschugguel |
Lit Match |
|
Josh Geffin |
Uncle Tony Fishing, Muckross Lake |
|
Josh Geffin |
Heatwave In North London |
|
Josh Geffin |
Happening Upon Laurence Olivier (1907-1989) |
|
Josh Geffin |
Pens Down |
|
Josh Geffin |
Kin |
|
Joyce Victor |
Tick and Me |
|
Judith Allnatt |
Bubbles |
|
Judith Allnatt |
The Old Woman looks through a Rectangle |
|
Judith Wozniak |
Going to the Dogs |
|
Judy Luttrell |
Hopscotch |
|
Julian Wakeling |
A Reprieve |
|
Julie Sumner |
If You Teach a Man to Fish |
|
Julio Trujillo |
This Lime |
|
Karen Tobias-Green |
This House |
|
Karina Holm |
Birthday cake |
|
karla k morton |
Something |
|
karla k morton |
Riding the Line |
|
Kat Glaser |
Elaine’s POV |
|
Kate Teves |
The Fool |
|
Katherine Hahn Falk |
Wasted Time |
|
Katherine Hahn Falk |
Suppose |
|
Kathy Clayden |
Two Hours Before Lone Ranger |
|
Katrina Moinet |
Premature Procrastination |
|
Kegan Swyers |
Rejoice! |
|
Kelley Pujol |
Black shoes, green pants |
|
Kelly Quinn Anderson |
I’m Looking For Half of My Face |
|
kerri cripps |
When war breaks out in your kitchen |
|
Kevin MacAlan |
Comeragh, 1921 |
|
Kim Jensen |
Breath Holding Contest |
|
Kristen Mears |
Daughters |
|
Kurt Luchs |
The Sign of Odysseus |
|
Kurt Luchs |
Seasonal |
|
Lana Holman |
Moment Interrupted |
|
Lana Holman |
Disappointed Angel |
|
Laurie Holding |
Bicycle Tricks |
|
Layla O’Mara |
the medicine grows close to the source of the illness |
|
Lesley Sherwood |
On the Street Where They Live |
|
Linda Nemec Foster |
June Wedding |
|
Lisa Smith |
Vintage |
|
Liz Byrne |
Boy of rain |
|
Liz Kendall |
A matter of trees and time |
|
Liz Kendall |
The Sutton Hoo hoard has been Temporarily Moved |
|
Liz Kerr |
Waving the Runner Home |
|
Lollie Butler |
A GHAZAL FOR THE LAST SHOW |
|
Lori Grapes |
Let’s Go Fishing |
|
Lori Jakiela |
One Day When He Was Dying |
|
Lori Jakiela |
After a Pitcher of Beer at Antlers Pub I Believed I was Brave |
|
Lori Jakiela |
The Lady in 38C |
|
Lori Jakiela |
The View During Takeoff |
|
Lou Lesovitch |
Christina |
|
Louise DiLenge |
Shattered Glass |
|
Luz Leyden |
TWISTED |
|
Lynnda Wardle |
Sailing on 31 Mile Lake, Quebec |
|
Maggie Jackson |
The in-between |
|
Malcolm Povey |
Too Late for Sorry |
|
Malcolm Povey |
Lessons |
|
Malissa Priebe |
the chickens dance |
|
Mandy Pannett |
Fugitives |
|
Mandy Pannett |
A Fourteenth Way of Looking |
| Marion Quednau |
Hearsay |
|
Mark de Rond |
The Sickness |
|
Martin Clayton |
Insomnia |
|
Martyn Golding |
Very Sick |
|
mary mulholland |
Parents gaze at spaceboy |
|
Mary Ruth Wallen |
Coming Home |
|
Mary Ruth Wallen |
Saccade, Solitude, or My Own Philosophy of Time and Space |
|
Mary O’Melveny |
Writing About the Invisible |
|
Matt Hohner |
Dispatch from the Artist Residency |
|
Matthew Zhao |
We Are All Named After Someone |
|
Mel Konner |
Grand Canyon Dawn |
|
Michael Swan |
Names |
|
Miriam O’Meara |
Life Has Three Arrivals |
|
Miriam O’Meara |
It is Easier to be a Monk |
|
Mran-Maree Laing |
Bird. Sea. World. |
|
Nicholas Hogg |
The Blind Photographer |
|
Nicolette Daskalakis |
Landscape with Burning Car |
|
Ninette Hartley |
My Mother’s Sewing Box |
|
Noelene Nash |
Mealwords |
|
Ockert Greeff |
Speed Trap |
|
Olga Balaeva |
A Date with Connemara |
|
Olga Balaeva |
A Date with Connemara |
|
owen lewis |
My Partisan Grief |
|
Paige Sandgren |
White |
|
Patricia Millner |
Between Worlds |
|
Patricia Osborne |
The night carer |
|
Patricia Osborne |
The night carer |
|
Patricia Osborne |
The White Horse |
|
Patricia Sheppard |
Sequelae |
|
Peter Archer |
House Party |
|
Philip Rösel Baker |
Small White Sphere |
|
Regina O’Melveny |
AWAKE |
|
Rekha Mehra |
Shortchanging the Next Occupants |
|
Renee Sgroi |
each day i drive the edge of my own omphalos |
|
Rhonda Collis |
Dam |
|
Rhonda Collis |
Locket |
|
Rita Geil |
Lyons Creek Trail |
|
Rita Geil |
Lyons Creek Trail |
|
Rita Geil |
Party of One |
|
Rob Phillips |
TIMEWORN |
|
Rob Phillips |
Blackbird in Lorcan Blue |
|
Roberta Beary |
From that Moment in the Garden… |
|
Rodney Aldrich |
A Field Plowed Late |
|
Roger Camp |
A Model of Abstraction |
|
Roger Camp |
Pinched in the Metro |
|
Róisín Leggett Bohan |
anticipation of anaphylaxis |
|
Róisín Leggett Bohan |
Letter to a Lifeguard |
|
Róisín Ní Neachtain |
I see you knew my small betray… |
|
Rosalind Brackenbury |
Early Tintoretto at the Accademia |
|
Sabrina Wolfe |
When I went back, nothing was the same |
|
Sally Furneaux |
Lost Song |
|
Sandeep Kumar Mishra |
Immigration- A Tree Without Roots |
|
Sarah Blizzard Robinson |
Building Bridges in the Air |
|
Sarah Davies |
Flight from Bristol to Cork |
|
Sarah Reader Harris |
The Power of Flowers |
|
Scott Dorsch |
Your Eyes Were Fists and They Were Reaching |
|
Scott Dorsch |
Vanishings |
|
Scott Dorsch |
How Close We Are in the Blue Hour |
|
Shoshanna Rockman |
In sequence. In sequence. In sequence |
|
Simon Petty |
Packing |
|
Simon Petty |
The Worm Stones |
|
Sinead McClure |
Before, during and after my husband’s death, the birds came |
|
Soledad Alfaro-Allah |
DIG |
|
stacey forbes |
When West Virginia speaks its … |
|
stacey forbes |
Dream with wild rhubarb and a Mockingbird |
|
Stephanie Feeney |
Pink Load |
|
Stephanie Feeney |
A Mother Can’t Help but Eavesdrop at the Park |
|
Stephanie Feeney |
The Scene |
|
Stephanie Feeney |
Loon Song |
|
Stephanie Saywell |
In Which My Anger Introduces Herself as the next Bond Girl |
|
Steve Xerri |
housefly metaphysics |
|
Susan Roney-O’Brien |
Until Light Came |
|
Susan Roney-O’Brien |
Multiple Sclerosis |
|
Susanna Lang |
A Clattering of Jackdaws |
|
Suzanna Fitzpatrick |
Little Armoured One |
|
Tania Dain |
Red Witch |
|
Tate Standage |
honest skeletons |
|
Toby Litt |
A Clarification |
|
V. A. Bettencourt |
We Seem Like Misfits But |
|
V. A. Bettencourt |
Life Lessons from Floral Hyenas |
|
Vasiliki Albedo |
When I say I’m a firewalker I mean our bedroom’s burning |
|
vincent Barton |
Seahorse |
|
Wayne Medford |
I want to be seen naked by someone other than a trained healthcare professional |
|
Willie Schatz |
In the Georgetown Law Men’s Room |
