The Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition
Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition 2005
Judges: Gwyneth Lewis and Les Murray
Winners:
1st Prize of £5000 goes to Linda Rogers from British Columbia in Canada for her poem He Saw the Pale.
2nd Prize of £1000 goes to Robert Butler from Kent, UK, for his poem A Sumerian Tablet.
3rd Prize of £750 goes to Gareth Jones from Wigan, UK for his poem Unreel.
Cardiff Poet Prize of £250 goes to Russell Collier for his poem Bob in Cardiff.
Cardiff Poet Prize Adjudication
Runners - up:
Enlightenment, Gary Bills, Stourbridge
At the Cleaners, Keith Chandler, Norfolk
Building the Alder Fence, Jacqueline Kapr, France
It Was Elephants, Linda Rogers, Canada
Last Carp in the Abbey Pond, Mick Wood, Essex
And Following Them, David Hart, Birmingham
Nothing, Roger Moulsden, Watford
Measuring a Man, Laurna Robertson, Roxburghshire
The Lord and Lady of Rhiwbina, Gareth James, Cardiff
Judges’ Biographies
Gwyneth Lewis has published six books of poetry in Welsh and English. Her first collection in English, Parables & Faxes (Bloodaxe, 1995) won the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Prize and was short listed for the Forward Prize, as was her second, Zero Gravity (Bloodaxe, 1998). Y Llofrudd Iaith (’The Language Murderer’, Barddas, 2000), won the Welsh Arts Council Book of the Year Prize 2000 and Keeping Mum (Bloodaxe, 2003), was short listed for the same prize in 2004. Gwyneth composed the words for the front of Cardiff’s new Wales Millennium Centre. She is a Nesta awardee.
Les Murray is Australia’s leading poet and one of the greatest contemporary poets writing in English. He has won many literary awards, including the Grace Leven Prize (1980 and 1990), the Petrarch Prize (1995), and the prestigious TS Eliot Award (1996). In 1999 he was awarded the Queens Gold Medal for Poetry on the recommendation of Ted Hughes. His latest collection to be published in the US was voted a Notable Book for 2001 by the American Library Association. He has also recently been honored by the Australian Academy of the Humanities, where he has been elected an Honorary Fellow.
In 2005 Cardiff celebrates its 100th birthday as a city and 50th year as Wales’ capital. To mark this Academi are offering a special prize for the best poem entered to come by a Cardiff Poet. There is no extra charge to enter in this category and doing so does not in any way jeopardize your entry into the Cardiff International Poetry Competition. Simply tick the box marked ’Cardiff Poet’ and your poem will be considered for this extra prize. The City of Cardiff is defined by City Council Boundaries.
Cardiff Poet Judge
Hilary Llewellyn-Williams was born in Kent, studied English and Theology at Southampton, and moved to Wales in 1982. She has been writing poetry since she was a child, with her first published piece at age 11. She has won the Cardiff Literature Prize, and came joint third in the Arvon/Observer Poetry Competition in (1994). She has selected the shortlist for the Cardiff International Poetry Competition for two years, and currently works as a freelance tutor in creative writing. Her most recent poetry collection is Greenland (Seren, 2003).