On 12th May 2023, the online Awarding Ceremony for Wales Poetry Award 2022 (sponsored by Literature Wales) was held, hosted by judge Gwyneth Lewis and Poetry Wales editor Zoë Brigley.
If you were able to join us on the evening, thank you so much for your attendance, and for making the event such a special one. If you weren’t able to join us, don’t worry – a recording of the event will be made available soon. In the meantime, you can watch previous years awards on our YouTube page – or scroll down to find out who won this year’s awards, and read their poems…
FIRST AWARD WINNER
Translations of Grief by Kathryn Bevis
Kathryn Bevis is former Hampshire Laureate. Her poems appear in: Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Poetry Ireland Review, Magma, and The London Magazine. Last year, her poems co-won the Mairtín Crawford Award for Poetry, the Poetry Society Members’ Competition, and won the Second Light Competition. Flamingo is her debut pamphlet, published by Seren.
Follow her on Twitter @BevisKathryn
SECOND AWARD WINNER
Clara the Rhinoceros by Stephanie Green
Stephanie Green’s pamphlets are Glass Works (Cat’s Pyjamas Publications, 2005), shortlisted for the Callum McDonald Award and Flout (HappenStance, 2015). Berlin Umbrella, a poetry/sound walk, appeared in Berlin, 2018, and StAnza, 2020. Rewilding, her latest poetry/sound walk, is part of the Orkney Nature Festival, May 2023. She co-curates PoetryLit online, is a Dance critic and lives in Edinburgh.
Her website is www.stephaniegreen.org.uk
THIRD AWARD WINNER
Marshfield by Kit Griffiths
Kit Griffits is a 33 year old, Cardiff-born and raised (Merthyr on weekends), Cambridge-educated and Margate-based award winning filmmaker and published poet whose pamphlet, Old Poverty (Earthbound Press, 2020). Kit is currently building a first full collection, a set of redemptive family portraits called Delusions of Grandma.
Follow them on Instagram @kit_griffiths.
Their website is www.kitgriffiths.com
HIGHLY COMMENDED POETS | in alphabetic order by poem name
An archaeologist digs up a family of four by Rae Howells
Rae Howells is a poet, journalist and lavender farmer. She has won the Rialto and Welsh poetry competitions and featured in journals including Magma, The Rialto, Poetry Wales, New Welsh Review, and Poetry Ireland. Her co-authored pamphlet Bloom & Bones (Hedgehog) and her collection The Language of Bees (Parthian) are out now.
Follow her on Twitter @raehowells and Instagram @Poet_Rae
Bipolar by David Walrond
David Walrond has lived in Cornwall for the last 20 years and recently retired from working in further education. He won the Llanishen Comprehensive School Eisteddfod Poetry Prize in 1973 under a pseudonym. Shortly after that, he took a break from writing which lasted several decades but he has returned to it recently and was First Award Winner of Wales Poetry Award 2021.
First Steps in Fishguard by Guinevere Clark
Guinevere Clark holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Swansea University, exploring motherhood, sexuality, and place. Her first poetry collection is Fresh Fruit and Screams, (Bluechrome). She’s Highly Commended with Hammond House (2022), and Ambit (2020), appears in Magma, A3, Minerva Rising, Culture Matters, and Atlanta Review. She teaches poetry at The Taliesin Arts Centre and for a writers development project. She is part of the George Barker family.
Follow her on Twitter @guinevere_baubo, Instagram @guinevere_clark_poetry, Facebook Poetry by Guinevere Clark.
Her website is www.guinevereclark.com
How to Take Up Writing Again by Jonathan Greenhause
Jonathan Greenhause’s first poetry collection, Cupping Our Palms (Meadowlark Press, 2022), was the winner of the 2022 Birdy Poetry Prize, and his poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Fish Anthology, The Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry, Poetry Ireland Review, The Rialto, and The Poetry Society website.
His website is www.jonathangreenhause.com
Ils for Tea by Frances Roberts-Reilly
Frances Roberts Reilly is a Romani writer, poet and filmmaker of mixed-heritage Welsh Gypsy-English, a direct descendant of Abram Wood. She has published numerous short stories, articles and poems. Her book is Parramisha: A Romani Poetry Collection (Cinnamon Press 2020). Frances is producer of Watershed Writers on Midtown Radio KW. She lives in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.
Her poem is dedicated Harry (Turpin) Wood, Welsh Rom rabbit catcher and fisherman.
Follow her on Twitter @francescsr and Instagram @francesr66
In, Over, Through, Off by Iris Anne Lewis
Iris Anne Lewis is originally from Wales and is widely published. She has featured in Black Bough Poetry’s Silver Branch Series, won 1st prize in Gloucestershire Poetry Society competition and has been invited several times to read at the Cheltenham Literary Festival. In 2018 she founded Wordbrew, a Cirencester-based group of poets.
Follow her on Twitter @IrisAnneLewis
Liberty by Gill Gregory
Gill Gregory is the author of 4 books, including In Slow Woods (poetry) (Rufus Books, 2011). Sequences of poems appear in The High Window (2023) and Stand Magazine (2023). ‘On The Departure Platform’ (podcast relating to Thomas Hardy’s poetry) is online with Poetry Exchange (2022).
Minna Wolff’s Hair by Anna Kisby
Anna Kisby is a writer and archivist, whose poetry often incorporates historical research. She’s author of All the Naked Daughters (Against the Grain Press, 2017) and co-author of Sea Between Us (Nine Pens, 2022). Originally from London, Anna lives in Devon, UK.
Follow her on Twitter @annakisby
The Magician’s Assistant by Kathy Miles
Kathy Miles lives in West Wales. Her work has appeared widely in magazines and anthologies, and her fourth full collection, Bone House, was published by Indigo Dreams in 2020. She is a previous winner of the Wells Festival Poetry Competition, the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Competition and the Bridport Prize.
Follow her on Twitter @Kathym974 and Facebook Kathy Miles
The receipt from the pound-shop speaks by Lesley Curwen
Lesley Curwen is a poet, broadcaster and sailor who lives in Plymouth. She often writes about the sea, our climate, loss and grief. Her poems have been widely anthologised and her work is soon to be published by Nine Pens in a Nine Series pamphlet.
Follow her on Twitter @elcurwen and Instagram @elcurwen. Her website is www.lesleycurwenpoet.com
Wales Poetry Award 2022 Shortlist
In order to preserve the original formatting of the poems, we present the shortlist in PDF format, which you can download/open below or scroll through to read
Content Warning:
The poems in this collection contain mentions of/references to:
- Domestic and intimate partner violence
- Long-term illness
- Death and grief