Poetry prize shortlist revealed

Olds' collection is my personal favorite.

BBC: Poetry prize shortlist revealed

Don Paterson won the best first collection prize in 1993
The shortlist for the 18th Forward Prize for Poetry has been announced.

Respected poets Sharon Olds, Hugo Williams and Christopher Reid are in the running for best collection for the first time in the annual awards.

Peter Porter, who won the award in 2002 for his Max Is Missing collection, is shortlisted for a second time with his 18th book of poems, Better Than God.

The shortlist for the £10,000 prize, to be presented on 7 October, is completed by Don Paterson and Glyn Maxwell.

Paterson, nominated for Rain, won the prize for best first collection for Nil Nil in 1993.


BEST COLLECTION SHORTLIST
Glyn Maxwell - Hide Now
Sharon Olds - One Secret Thing
Don Paterson - Rain
Peter Porter- Better than God
Christopher Reid - A Scattering
Hugo Williams - West End Final


Another previous winner of best first collection, Paul Farley - who won in 1998 for The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You - is among the contenders for best single poem, for Moles.

Shortlisted for this year's best first collection prize is Lorraine Mariner, who was previously nominated for best single poem in 2007.

The Forward Prizes were founded in 1992 to raise the profile of contemporary poetry.

Writer and producer Josephine Hart is chair of the judges for 2009.

She is joined by poet and librettist David Harsent, poets Jean Sprackland and Tishani Doshi, and the Guardian's poetry editor, Nicholas Wroe.

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Holly Rose Review (HRR), the first online poetry & tattoo literary journal, launches its June issue. The theme is PASSION with worldwide contributors. Poetry by Arlene Ang, Donavon Davidson, Lane Falcon, Peter Joseph Glovizcki, Kathryn Good-Schiff, Seth Jani, Pamela Johnson Parker, Christine Klocek-Lim, Daphne Lazarus, Jee Leong Koh, Donnelle McGee, Marie-Elizabeth Mali, Colleen Mills, Erika Moya, Rhonda Palmer, Siimon Petkovich, Jayne Pupek, Edwin Rivera, Kathrin Schaeppi, & Martha Silano. Tattoos by Seven Beckham, Chris Belville, Cengiz Eyvazov, Luba Goldina, Shotsie Gorman, Maxime Lanouette, Soul Expressions, & Shane Tan. Original art by Tiffany Carpenter, Bob Dilworth, and Thomas Woodruff.

One True Bear

I found this to be an intriguing article by Sean Coughlan. As a mother of two boys, I recall how they delighted in drawing pictures of car crashes and buildings falling down. Using these kind of images in a children's story is bold and honest. I appreciate the fact that the children drew the pictures themselves. Here is an excerpt, with a link to find the rest of the article.

Blood and Bedtime Stories

By Sean Coughlan
BBC News


There's rarely room in children's books for scenes of slaughter and pictures of people being impaled, so why does one author want to change this?

There have been many calls to protect the young from violent images, but it's not often the opposite case is argued, that there aren't enough aggressive pictures in children's books.

But award-winning children's author Ted Dewan is conscientiously putting scenes of mayhem and destruction into his latest book, not drawn by an adult but by the children themselves.

Children, particularly boys, often produce violent images in their drawings, he says. But when it comes to children's books, this becomes a taboo. They're often fluffy and fleecy, but there's rarely room in the children's section for the scenes of slaughter that many boys like to draw.


One True Bear is a moral tale about a bear and boy. Mr Dewan wants children's literature to face up to this "hidden art" and to cast some light on the "type of pictures that don't get put up on the fridge". Read the rest here.