Poetry Book Awards – Winners Announced!
The organisers of the international Poetry Book Awards have announced the winners of the 2022 contest.
Congratulations to Rufus Mufasa for her collection ‘Flashbacks & Flowers‘. Chosen by our judge, famous Welsh writer John Evans as this years winner!
1st Prize – Flashbacks & Flowers – Rufus Mufasa
2nd Prize – Siarad – Caroline Reid
3rd Prize – We Are The Winter People – Jenny Rowbory
About the winner
Literary activist Rufus Mufasa is a pioneering participatory artist who advocates hip hop education and poetry development accessible to all. Lyricist, rapper and performance art poet, with an MA in scriptwriting.
Rufus is a Hay Writer at Work, supports several intergenerational projects, mentors men at Parc Prison and is planning her fourth visit to Finland, where she recently headlined the Helsinki Literature Festival. As well as being the first Welsh artist to perform at Ruisrock festival, she mentors Finnish beat poets, and now writes trilingually as a result.
She has worked with the BBC, Chapter Arts, The Cooperative Society and the Barbican. She has won or been specially commended in several poetry contests.
Judges comments
The quality of the work produced by all the entrants this year was of a very high standard. Today sadly, poetry has largely become an art form firmly tied to an establishment elite and academia. Arts Council’s circulate precious public funds among a small group of people to write, publish, review (always positive), and win their prestigious sounding awards. Meanwhile poetry book sales are shockingly low given the money spent, the work is ignored outside of this cosy arrangement, and the public are either disengaged or denied access to the wonderful world of poetry. While judging this competition, I was delighted to discover that despite all of this people throughout the world are finding their own voices, creating their own publishing and performing scene, and are exploring all of the possibilities of this exciting form of writing. Poetry is reborn. It has been taken over by people of all ages and backgrounds who want to express themselves through verse.
The three winning poets were perfect examples of this growing phenomenon.
First place went to Rufus Mufasa, poet, performer, MC and mother, with her outstanding and highly original autobiographical collection. Second prize to Australian writer Caroline Reid, herself another very talented performer and wordsmith who through verse also takes us on a journey through life. In third place is Jenny Rowbory, a young girl struck down by a rare illness (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome) which left her bedbound, and who has spent the following years staring at the ceiling while waiting for life saving surgery. Jenny’s poems are heart-breaking, yet her work is also inspirational, and encouraging – it is the work of a remarkable woman and another hugely talented writer.
John Evans
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For more information just visit our website – www.poetrybookawards.co.uk
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