First Winners of New Women Poets' Prize Announced

At Bustle, learn about the first three winners of the Women Poets' Prize: Nina Mingya Powles, Claire Collison, and Anita Pati. Bustle's Emily Dixon explains the prize was "established in memory of Rebecca Swift, founder of editorial advice service The Literary Consultancy, in order to celebrate 'creatively ambitious practitioners who are making or are capable of making a significant contribution to the UK poetry landscape.'" From there: 

Powles, a poet from New Zealand who now lives in London, told the Guardian she hoped to challenge the limitations of the poetry canon, which overwhelmingly favours white European men. "Being mixed race and half Chinese Malaysian, it has been a particular focus for me to discover other mixed race poets, writers and artists," she told the newspaper. "I am trying to find a new canon of my own."

The competition was judged by Moniza Alvi, Fiona Sampson, and Sarah Howe; they selected Powles for the "incredible originality" of her work, including a poem titled "Mother Tongue // 母语" which deftly manipulates form and content. Powles is the poetry editor at the Shanghai Literary Review, according to the Bookseller, as well as the author of three poetry collections: Girls of the Drift, Luminescent, and the upcoming Field Notes on a Downpour.

London-based poet Claire Collison's work includes a show titled Truth Is Beauty; she recites a monologue while modelling for a life drawing class, exposing her mastectomy scars. One of the poems in her application, "The Ladies' Pond," depicts one last swim before a mastectomy. A visual artist in residence at the Women's Art Library, Collison told the Guardian that "the process of writing is as important as the finished poem." The Women Poets' Prize judges called Collison's poetry "mesmerising, with unusual and subtle shifts," further lauding her work for its "remarkable naturalness."

Continue reading at Bustle.