I am so unbelievably excited, honoured, delighted (and a million other positive things) to announce that my poem ‘Moon Collector’ has won the 2019 Hampshire Prize, an award for the best poem by a Hampshire poet entered in the Winchester Poetry Prize. To win such a great accolade in the city where I was born made it feel even more special!
The prizegiving ceremony on Saturday 12th October was a really lovely event, held at Winchester Discovery Centre. It was very well attended, and I got to hear gorgeous poems from my fellow longlistees, who had come from as far away as Leeds, Bristol, and Liverpool. The overall prize was won by Peter Iveson for his incredibly moving poem ‘Mothers Milk’. Congratulations, everyone!
The Prize was judged by Helen Mort, a favourite poet of mine. I might have fan-girled a bit when I got to meet her!
I would like to thank Winchester Poetry Prize and Festival for doing what they do and doing it with so much heart; Helen Mort for being such a brilliant judge; and independent Winchester stationers Warren and Son, who generously sponsored the Hampshire Prize.
You can read my poem and all of the Commended, Highly Commended, and winning poems in the competition anthology, please give me your heart to hold – available here.
“I found the moon on the roadside, / a cracked mouse skull or shrew skull – / some small creature, bleached of itself / and left, alone, fractured.”
– ‘Moon Collector’, winner of the 2019 Hampshire Prize
Ellora Sutton 