Kitching, Pickens shortlisted in Laurel Prize

Aotearoa New Zealand poets Megan Kitching and Robyn Maree Pickens are among those shortlisted for the annual UK nature and environmental poetry award, the Laurel Prize.

The shortlisted titles are:

• Ruin, Blossom (John Burnside, Jonathan Cape)
  
• Lapwing (Hannah Copley, Pavilion Poetry)
  
• At the Point of Seeing (Megan Kitching, Otago University Press)
  
• Food for the Dead (Charlotte Shevchenko Knight, Jonathan Cape)
  
• Tung (Robyn Maree Pickens, Otago University Press).

Awarded for ‘the best collection of environmental or nature poetry published each year,’ the Laurel Prize offers a first prize of £5000 ($A9710), second prize of £2000 (A$3884) and third prize of £1000 (A$1942). Additional prizes—Best First Collection UK and Best International First Collection—are each worth £500 (A$971). In addition, winners will receive a commission from National Landscapes to create a poem based on their favourite UK landscape.

The prize is run by the Poetry School and funded by Simon Armitage’s honorarium as UK Poet Laureate, which he receives annually from King Charles III. Winners will be announced on 19 October.

More information is available on the website.

Category: Awards Local news