The winners of The Crashaw Prize for Poetry 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, 17th April 2012
The winners of The Crashaw Prize for Poetry 2011
CROMER, UK (Salt Publishing) — Kaddy Benyon and Luke Heeley have won this year’s Crashaw Prize for Poetry 2011. Both poets will be published in November 2012.
The international poetry prize, now entering its fourth year, recognises the best debut full-length collections in English and receives entries from the UK and Ireland, the USA and Australasia.
Kaddy Benyon was born in Cambridge in 1973 and studied Literature, Life & Thought at Liverpool John Moores University and has an MA in Creative Writing from Anglia Ruskin University. She worked as a freelance television scriptwriter and novelist prior to having children. Her poems have appeared in Mslexia, Ambit, London Magazine, Popshot and the Frogmore Papers and Stand. She was shortlisted for both the 2010 Fish Poetry Prize and the inaugural Picador Poetry Prize.
Luke Heeley was born in 1977 and grew up in Lincolnshire. He now lives in south London. Selections of his poems have previously appeared in the anthologies The Art of Wiring (Ondt & Gracehoper) and Ask for It by Name (Unfold Press). He is also the recipient of an Eric Gregory Award.
Chris Hamilton-Emery [Director of Salt Publishing] said:
“Kaddy Benyon’s memorable and rewarding book, Milk Fever, offers lyrics of intense physicality and sensuality, where the world we inhabit and the world of our bodies collides and often merges in metaphors of powerful resonance and charm. The imagery and music of Benyon’s language is matched with an extraordinary range in this debut collection and we are delighted to make it a winner in this year’s prize.
“Luke Heeley’s winning collection, which arrived without a title, but has acquired one, Voyage to the Corner Shop, is exquisitely written, and displays a fantastic ear for cadence as well as displaying a significant lyric gift. Like his co-winner, Kaddy Benyon, Heeley has remarkable range and this collection won our admiration for this, for its impressive craft and technique, and its sheer delight as a truly rewarding read.”
Other shortlisted poets were:
Micah Bateman
Caleb Klaces
Julie Maclean
Alice Miller
Benjamin Morris
Charlotte Pence
Fritz Ward
J.T Welsch
About The Crashaw Prize:
The Crashaw Prize is an international annual prize for a first collection of poetry. Entrants must not have been published before, and must permanently reside in the UK & Ireland, the USA, or Australia & New Zealand. For more information please visit: http://thecrashawprize.co.uk/
Previous winners of the prize:
2010 WINNERS
Vesna Goldsworthy (Serbia/UK)
Rebecca Lehmann (USA)
Catherine Theis (USA)
2009 WINNERS
Nathan Hoks (USA)
Andrew Pidoux (UK)
Nick Potamitis (UK)
Jonty Tiplady (UK)
Ryan van Winkle (UK)
Anna Woodford (UK)
2008 WINNERS
Tom Chivers (UK)
Abi Curtis (UK)
Jamey Dunham (USA)
Jared Stanley (USA)
For further information please contact:
Chris Hamilton-Emery at chris@saltpublishing.com
Massive congratulations winning people, but also well done to the short listed.
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