The winners of the inaugural Patricia Eschen Prize for Poetry 2022 have now been announced. Congratulations to the winners and highly commended poets!  

Our brilliant judges, Katrina Naomi and Penelope Shuttle, chose the winners from almost 3000 poems in the adult category. You can click the links beside each poem to read the winning and shortlisted poems.

First prize: ‘Gifts from a Lithic Lover’ by Camilla Lambert  (read the poem here) from Arundel, West Sussex

Second prize: ‘Sails Catch the Wind’ by Marjory Woodfield  (read the poem here).

Third prize: ‘Kyiv, spring 1986’ by Anna Remennik (read the poem here). 

Highly commended:

‘We Need Another Amazon’ by Julian Bishop (read the poem here)
‘Guillemot’ by Olga Bloemen (read the poem here)
‘Throes’ by Loukia Borrell (read the poem here)
‘All That Remains’ by Charlene Cason (read the poem here)
‘Absence’ by Emesowum George Chidozie
‘Willow’ by David J Costello (read the poem here)
‘Stone Ground’ by Adele Evershed
‘Diary of the Immortal Jelly Girl’ by Dean Gessie
‘Desire Lines’ by Kitty Greenbrown 
‘Jellyfish’ by Tessa Griffith (read the poem here)
‘The 10th May’ by Eileen Harte (read the poem here)
‘My Father, the Mimic Octopus’ by Jennifer Moore (read the poem here)
‘Told you he was good, didn’t I’ by Catherine Naisby (read the poem here)
‘Jon Jonsson speaks’ by Bob Newman (read the poem here)
‘For the air that bears the burden of a body’ by Olusoji Obebe (read the poem here)
‘Snowdrops’ by Charlotte Oliver (read the poem here)
‘You’ll Find Me’ by Mayah Pico
‘Ode to my Mother’ by Samantha Samakande
‘Gift’ by Caroline Smith

Further congratulations go to the winners in the children’s category – the judges were thrilled by the calibre of the entries.

Children’s competition: 

First prize  –  ‘Dear Mother, From Your Daughter’ by Katie Geng, aged 14 (read the poem here). 

Joint Second Prize  – ‘A Boy Talking to a Robot in the Future about Where He Lives’ by Dexter Warburton, aged 13 (read the poem here). 

Joint Second Prize – ‘The Flow of Words’ by Caterina Williams, aged 12  (read the poem here). 

Joint Third Prize – ‘Refugees’ by Ziva Patel, aged 7 (read the poem here). 

Joint Third Prize – ‘Nonsense Safari’ by Benjamin Williams, aged 9 (read the poem here). 

Highly commended: 

‘The Water Horse’ by Ada Hearle, aged 10 (read the poem here). 

‘Balance’ by Zen Tyndale-Biscoe, aged 13.

‘Welcome to Launceston’ by Oriana White, aged 6 (read the poem here). 

The Morrab Library, The Dennis Myner Trust and our judges would like to congratulate all of the shortlist poets and say a big thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the competition!