The Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition

Judge’s Report: Carol Ann Duffy

The standard of entries for the Cardiff Poetry Competition was among the highest I have encountered in 20 years- so much so, that I was able to make two shortlists, an A List and a B List. There was little overlap with my co-judge, Roger Garfitt; so clearly there were many riches to choose from this year.

The winning poem, The Doll Who Died, is astonishing in its confidence, maintaining a compelling tone throughout, full of fabulous lines and muscular stanzas- a hide-and-seek fairytale narrative. Second Prize went to Psoriasis, a superbly physical piece, which actually made me itch when I read it! ’I read the bible hatred of my scalp.’ Wonderful. Like The Doll Who Died, it sustains its brio right to the end. The third prize-winner, What To Look for in Winter, is quieter in register, a lovely lyric shared between city and countryside.

All three poems have what it takes to earn their authors some useful prize money- confidence, poise, originality, music. It has been a pleasure to judge this competition with the astutely sympathetic Roger Garfitt.

Judge’s Report: Roger Garfitt

My overwhelming impression was of authenticity, of a competition that has established a broad base of popular support. The poems seemed to be arising naturally from people’s lives and I was often struck by the freshness of their approach. There was such a depth of field that, when Carol Ann and I first drew up our shortlists, there was not a single overlap. And it was very useful to have a second pair of eyes: we each found winning poems that the other had missed.

So what was I looking for? First of all, for poems driven by a sense of necessity. Inescapable poems, that simply had to be written. That is particularly true of our first and second prizewinners, which both take difficult personal material and use all their wit and imagination to argue it through. Each of them sustains its length and accumulates a considerable emotional charge. Secondly, I was looking for poems that refreshed the ear, that attuned me to new possibilities within the language. That is particularly true of the third prizewinner, whose beautifully judged spareness never failed to refresh me, however many hours I had spent at my desk.

Gradually, as we read and re-read, our shortlists converged and it was a rare pleasure to reach our final verdicts in such harmony.