Congratulations to Laura Scott and Ian Humphreys, winners of two prestigious prizes awarded by The Poetry Society. Laura is the winner of the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize for her poem ‘The Half-loved’, published in The Poetry Review, 105:2, Summer 2015. Ian was awarded the Hamish Canham Prize 2016 for his poem ‘Zebra on East 55th and 3rd’.

Selima Hill, who judged the Dearmer Prize, described Scott’s ‘The Half-loved’ as: “a heartfelt yet subtle poem that repays repeated readings. It does what a poem is meant to do, that only a poem can do: it examines a striking idea in an exhilarating mixture of thoughtfulness and sensuality, from the first irresistible words – ‘sometimes you hear her…’ to the final ‘is weeping it out today’. That last line is a risk, I have to say. I love it being a risk and I hope it works for other readers too.”

Laura said: “I am so pleased to have won. I imagine that’s what everyone says, but I really am! I’m honoured to be in such good company.”

New poems by Laura, who Mike Sims has interviewed, appear in the new, summer 2016 issue of The Poetry Review. Laura will be among the readers at the launch of the summer issue of the magazine at Keats House, London, on 21 July.

“Several members of the judging panel selected Ian Humphreys’s ‘Zebra on East 55th and 3rd’ as their first choice in a strong field for the Hamish Canham Prize 2016,” said Carole Satyamurti, who chaired. “I love the way the poem vividly evokes a particular urban environment and then places a surreal event within it. I also like the way the poem makes one think of other overlooked misfits, without labouring the point.”

“Writing can be a solitary, uphill slog, so it’s lovely to get a bit of recognition now and again and to be told you’re kind of heading in the right direction,” said Humphreys, whose poem began as an exercise in putting an animal in an unusual setting. “I changed the original animal to a zebra for extra contrast and to introduce an even more bizarre feel. The idea of it disappearing into a zebra crossing at the end of the poem came later and tied in well with the competition theme. When I read it now I see the zebra as a metaphor for a homeless person – someone invisible to mainstream society.”

It’s been quite a year for Ian, who has since been accepted on to the Complete Works III, the national development programme for advanced Black and Asian poets.

For more information on both winners, visit the competition pages for the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and the Hamish Canham Prize.

29 June 2016