With apologies for the delay and thanks to everyone who submitted and has waited so patiently, we are delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2011 Scott Prize for debut collections of short stories. This prize forms part of Salt’s commitment to the short story and to our mission to discover and nurture [...]]]>

With apologies for the delay and thanks to everyone who submitted and has waited so patiently, we are delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2011 Scott Prize for debut collections of short stories. This prize forms part of Salt’s commitment to the short story and to our mission to discover and nurture new talent from around the English-speaking world.

From almost 60 entries, a shortlist of 10 has been drawn up. This has been an incredibly difficult task. The standard of entries was very high indeed and there has been much hair-pulling to come up with the final list. Here it is:

Adam Prince (Knoxville, US): The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men
A.J. Ashworth (Lancashire, UK): Somewhere Else, or Even Here
Cassandra Parkin (E. Yorks, UK): New World Fairy Tales
Guy Ware (London, UK): Witness Protection
John Haggerty (CA, US): The Other Half of Graceland
Jonathan Pinnock (St Albans, UK): Dot (.), Dash (-)
Julie Mayhew (Herts, UK): A Little Death
Michael Downs (Baltimore, US): The Greatest Show
Nicole Reid (IN, US): If You Must Know
Virginia Gilbert (Dublin, Ireland): Abroad

Many congratulations to all the shortlisted authors! Winners will be announced in April; meanwhile, keep an eye on Salt News for more information on each of the shortlisted books.

This year the Crashaw Prize — the UK’s only international prize for full length collections of poetry — received over eighty entries from four continents. The writers span not merely the English-speaking world, but also the striking diversity of contemporary poetry written in our extravagant tongue. It would be impudent to argue [...]]]>

This year the Crashaw Prize — the UK’s only international prize for full length collections of poetry — received over eighty entries from four continents. The writers span not merely the English-speaking world, but also the striking diversity of contemporary poetry written in our extravagant tongue. It would be impudent to argue for any sense of the centeredness of modern English usage, no one can claim to own or direct poetry in English — and perhaps one ought to argue for entirely the opposite: that we should recognise that poetry in English is both expansive, baggy and unlimited — traversing peoples and national boundaries and even imaginations.

The prize, now in its third year, has come reflect both this extraordinary plurality of practice and the continuing excitement poetry evokes in communities far and wide — poetry is clearly thriving. What characterises this year’s entries is the clear points of contact many poets now have through the Web and social networks into communities of readers who are, as it were, without borders.  Though poetry can be passionately local its new habitat is online and global and this brings with it a new excitement and a new set of ambitions for poets writing today in our networked societies. Poetry is very much a public and participative art which everyone can enjoy. This brings additional and sometimes complex pressures in selecting works which we believe can engage a wide readership where the readership may be widely dispersed. We believe we have done this and I’m delighted to announce the shortlist for this year’s prize.

The shortlist (in alphabetical order)

Vesna Goldsworthy The Angel of Salonika (UK/Serbia)

Rebecca Lehmann Between the Crackups (USA)

Lauren Levin Not Time (USA)

Alice Miller Theatre of Strangers (New Zealand)

Stephen Nelson Lunar Poems for New Religions (UK)

Charlotte Pence Other Interruptions (USA)

Aidan Semmens The Book of Isaac (UK)

Catherine Theis The Fraud of Good Sleep (USA)

The winners will be announced in during April, National Poetry Month.

Notes for editors

1. The Crashaw Prize is the only international poetry prize for full length collections of poetry written in English.
2. The prize is administered by Salt and judged by Publisher, Chris Hamilton-Emery.
3. The prize began in  2008. Winners are published the following year of entry.
4. Since the prize began it has successfully published ten first collections.
5. Previous winners include:

2009 Winners

Nathan Hoks, Reveilles (USA)

Andrew Pidoux, Year of the Lion (UK)

Nick Potamitis, The Book of Night Terrors (UK)

Jonty Tiplady, Zam Bonk Dip (UK)

Ryan van Winkle, Tomorrow, We Will Live Here (UK)

Anna Woodford, Birdhouse (UK)

2008 Winners

Tom Chivers, How to Build a City (UK)

Abi Curtis, Unexpected Weather (UK)

Jamey Dunham, The Bible of Lost Pets (USA)

Jared Stanley, Book Made of Forest (USA)

The 2009 Crashaw Prize attracted 120 full length manuscripts from poets in the UK and Ireland, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. The international prize continues to provide an extraordinary shapshot of new writing from most of the English-speaking world, as such it is the only prize of [...]]]>

The 2009 Crashaw Prize Shortlist

The 2009 Crashaw Prize attracted 120 full length manuscripts from poets in the UK and Ireland, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. The international prize continues to provide an extraordinary shapshot of new writing from most of the English-speaking world, as such it is the only prize of its kind, drawing attention to the best debut collections from around the globe.

The Crashaw prize is unique in discovering poets from many different cultures and locations, yet it is clear that we share not only a language but increasingly a shrinking, more accessible, digital world. Poetry in English is now a global exchange of ideas and practices: there are no dominant modes of writing, no success patterns to adopt or defend, no single model of expression and our heritage is a global one. Audiences, too, are as diverse as the writing and writers. This diversity as well as the community of poetry in English is to be celebrated and, indeed, forms the background and impetus to the Crashaw Prize itself.

This year’s submissions were especially perplexing: the standard of submissions was exceptionally high, the talents astonishingly various, the book themselves filled with an abundance of innovative and rewarding poems that deserve a wide audience. After a great deal of deliberation and from an internal longlist of thirty-five collections we have now chosen twelve manuscripts we feel are exceptional works. All of these poets deserve our interest.

This year’s shortlist consists of :

1. Phil Brown, Il Avilit (ENGLAND)
2. Matt Bryden, Boxing the Compass (ENGLAND)
3. Theodore Z. Cotler, House with a Dark Sky Roof (USA)
4. Nathan Hoks, Book of Clouds (USA)
5. Yvonne C. Murphy, Aviaries (USA) WITHDRAWN
6. Andrew Pidoux, Year of the Lion (USA)
7. Nick Potamitis, The Book of Night Terrors (ENGLAND)
8. Terry Ann Thaxton, Getaway Girl (USA)
9. Jonty Tiplady, Zam Bonk Dip (ENGLAND)
10. Ryan Van Winkle, Untitled (SCOTLAND)
11. Eoghan Walls, The Salt Harvest (IRELAND) WITHDRAWN
12. Anna Woodford, Birdhouse (ENGLAND)

From this shortlist we will make our selection of this year’s winners and will publish four collections during in 2010 — the tenth anniversary of Salt. The winners will be announced on Friday 26th of February.

A shortlist from 120 submissions has now been made for the 2009 Crashaw Prize, the listing will be made public later this week. We’re just checking on a last minute withdrawal from the prize to see if we can avoid that.

The winning titles will be announced in [...]]]> STOP PRESS

A shortlist from 120 submissions has now been made for the 2009 Crashaw Prize, the listing will be made public later this week. We’re just checking on a last minute withdrawal from the prize to see if we can avoid that.

The winning titles will be announced in February.