We are pleased to announce that The Philip Larkin Poetry Prize 2015 at the Bridlington Poetry Festival was awarded to Mel Pryor for her poem, Three stops from St. Francis Comprehensive.

The East Riding Prize was awarded to Sarah Stutt, for Preparation.

The Young Poet’s Prize went to Adam Sreeves for his poem, We, the untitled, persist.

The entries were judged by Jean Sprackland, who commented on the difficult task she had in judging them:

Judging this competition was an absorbing task – so many strong poems, and so very varied in theme, form and style. Poetry reading is slow reading, and I enjoyed spending time with these poems, letting them grow and develop as I came back and back to them, feeling the strongest of them take hold of my own imagination and not let go. The final decisions were very difficult because the poems were so different that it was hard to compare them. In the end, it is just as Emily Dickinson said: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?

We offer our congratulations to all the prize winners and runners up.

Full details, including the poems, can be found on the Wordquake website.