Announcing the winning poems of the Poetry Wales Award 2024-25.
We would like to congratulate all of the Highly Commended poets, and a special congratulations to our three Award winners: Natasha Gauthier, Natasha Borton, and Liam Bates.
Thank you to everyone who attended our Awarding Ceremony last night, to the hundreds of poets who submitted their work, to our fantastic Competition Volunteer Lucy Elford, and to our marvellous judge Jeremy Dixon.
Scroll down to get to know the winners better and download the booklet of all the winning and commended poems, click here to get to know the whole shortlist better, and click below to keep in touch with Poetry Wales and be the first in the know when we next run the competition.
First Award Winner: Natasha Gauthier
For ‘Via Crucis on the Piccadilly Line’
Natasha Gauthier (she/her) is a Canadian poet living in Cardiff. A 2024-25 Representing Wales alumna, she has appeared in Poetry Wales, Scintilla, Ink, Sweat and Tears, and Black Iris, among others. Her work will be featured in the upcoming Afonydd anthology (Arachne). She is nominated for the 2025 Forward Prize.
Second Award Winner: Natasha Borton
For ‘Bucket Hat Bois’
Natasha Borton (she/her) is a poet, musician and theatre-maker from Wrexham. She uses performance and music as tools for connection and discussion. Her poetry is rooted in identity and community and everyday folklore. She hosts Voicebox Wxm, supporting emerging and diverse voices and she is part of Representing Wales 24/25.
Third Award Winner: Liam Bates
For ‘Magic’
Liam Bates (he/him) is a poet based in Lancashire. He won a Northern Writers’ Award and has been published in Magma, Under the Radar, Berlin Lit and elsewhere. His two pamphlets and his debut collection, Human Townsperson, are available from Broken Sleep Books.
Highly Commended Poets
- Anna Bowles, ‘February the Thirty-Seventh’
- Richard Lewis, ‘The Circus’
- Heather Chapman, ‘Kiss Me Like I’m Edward II’
- Garnett ‘Ratte’ Frost, ‘Manscape’
- Elizabeth Wilson Davies, ‘Mulholland Drive Weather Report’
- Dominic Fisher, ‘Black Rubber on the Hard Shoulder’
- Zain Rishi, ‘Potters Field’
- Ginny Darke, ‘Sea Witch’
- Teddy Mills, ‘when i came out to my family in that Airbnb in Rome’
- Sophia Argyris, ‘Winter Flowering’
Meet the Judge
Jeremy Dixon
Jeremy Dixon (he/him) is a prize-winning poet, editor and workshop leader. He is the author of the pamphlet In Retail (Arachne Press, 2019). His first full collection A Voice Coming From Then (Arachne Press, 2021) won the Wales Book of the Year Poetry Award 2022. He co-edited the anthology JOY//US: Poems of Queer Joy (Arachne Press, 2024). His new pamphlet of Polari-inspired poems Bold in the Life was published by Broken Sleep Books in April 2025.
Jeremy was sole judge of the Poetry Wales Award 2024-25.
Download the Booklet
Read all of the winning and shortlisted poems