Patricia Eschen Prize for Poetry 2024 – Prize Winners

The Morrab Library and The Dennis Myner Trust are delighted to announce the winners of the international Patricia Eschen Prize for Poetry 2024.

The prize winners were announced by the competition judges at an awards ceremony which took place at The Exchange in Penzance on Saturday afternoon (26th October), in front of an audience of fellow shortlisted poets, the judges and sponsors, and Library members. You can read about the children’s competition winners here.

The Prize Winners

The competition was judged anonymously and received over 1300 entries across the adult and children’s prizes. Award-winning poet, Katrina Naomi judged the competition and chose ‘American Eclipse Sonnet’ by Miruna Fulgeanu as the overall winner of the 2024 Patricia Eschen Prize for Poetry.

Katrina said she “admired the poet’s taut language and fine imagery” and described the poem as one that “offers more on every reading.” Miruna was in attendance on Zoom, along with many of her fellow shortlisted poets, and she read her poem to the audience. This recording will be available to view on The Morrab Library website soon.

Second prize was awarded to Julio Trujillo for his poem ‘The Whales’. Katrina said “I read many, many poems in response to the sea, ‘The Whales’ gave me surprising new perspectives on the ocean”.

Third prize was awarded to Abigail Ottley, for her poem ‘Aged twenty-nine, she buys her first running shoes’ about which Katrina says “The poet takes us on several journeys, journeys of learning and of metaphor. I found myself running alongside, willing the narrator on.”

The Highly Commended Poets

The highly commended poets were also in attendance, both on Zoom and in person, at the prize giving: ‘How to Conjugate Mourir’ by Adele Evershed; ‘England in 2023’ by Ann Westgarth; ‘Spring Wedding’ by Anne Bradshaw; ‘Final Thoughts of a Nuclear Missile’ by David Chaplin; ‘elegy for my gay son’ by Dean Gessie; ‘Admit Impediments‘ by Geoffrey Beevers and ‘This House’ by Karen Tobias-Green.

Katrina Naomi described the judging process as “a joy and a responsibility. It’s like finding treasures buried in the sand.” She congratulated all the shortlisted poets – “I’d like to offer my congratulations to everyone who is shortlisted and highly commended, and hope that these poets will feel heartened to have been picked out from such a huge number of entries. Huge congratulations to the first, second and third prize poets. These are stunning poems.”

The poets were awarded £2000 (1st prize), £1000 (2nd prize) and £500 (3rd prize).

The Sonnet Prize

This year, the competition also featured a Sonnet Prize; all the poems written in this form were judged separately by the Arizona-based poet Jodie Hollander. She chose ‘After the Biopsy’ by Kyle Potvin, a USA based poet, as the winner of the Sonnet Prize of £1500.

Jodie described this poem as “a true gem”. She says: “What impressed me most about this winning sonnet was the seemingly effortless movement of a compelling narrative within the structure of the sonnet form. Accessible and compelling within a beautiful musical structure, this poem thrust its reader into a powerfully immediate emotional experience.”

She also chose two highly commended sonnets, ‘Play it London’ by Jez Punter and ‘Mother Playing Baseball’ by Nathan Congdon.

The Morrab Library Librarian Lisa Di Tommaso commented, “It’s an absolute pleasure to host the Poetry Competition, and many thanks to the Dennis Myner Trust for their sponsorship. The range of entries was fantastic, from those who tried their hand at poetry for the first time, to the winners who created such beautiful and evocative work. To know that our library played a part in inspiring so many to participate is very gratifying“.

All of the shortlisted poems are now available to read in the Poetry Room at The Morrab Library, as well below. Clips of the winners reading their poems will be available to view on The Morrab Library social media in the coming weeks.