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AUB International Poetry Prize 2022
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AUB International Poetry Prize 2022

The competition, with its theme of ‘Choice’ is open to writers over the age of 16 from any part of the world and will be judged by award-winning poet Glyn Maxwell.

An impressive prize of £500 is due to be awarded to the best entry, with two runner-up prizes and ten Highly Commended places up for grabs. Not only that, but all longlisted entries will be published in a celebratory digital anthology. See below for last year’s anthology designed by AUB Graphic Design student Chiara Causer and edited by poet and Creative Writing lecturer Dr Natalie Scott.

The competition’s theme encourages writers to express their thoughts and feelings in a way that doesn’t restrict them to a particular topic or approach. Entrants can choose to write in any form or style of poem in response to the theme, which can be interpreted in any way they like. Whether it’s sharing a personal experience of choice or observing it in the wider world, from making important life-choices to choosing from a café menu, we’re looking forward to seeing a variety of creative approaches.

Winners

We're delighted with this second year of the competition. We received over 270 entries from 17 countries, with poets responding to our competition theme of ‘Choice’. As last year, the standard was very high.

Winner

  • End of the Night Shift – Susan E Thomas

Runners-up

  • Liz tells me OnlyFans pays in USD – Perla Kantarjian
  • The Man Who Swims at Night – Elena Croitoru

Highly Commended

  • A Winter Loose With Cruel Dissolve – Phil Cassidy
  • All Clear – Christopher M James
  • Advance Decision – Alison Binney
  • The fever – Ewan Monaghan
  • The Hope of Birds – Clare Starling
  • for the Bayraktar Drone on the night of the Turkish invasion
  • Seven Feet of English – Jonathan Edis
  • Those Who Don't Exist – Sam Szanto
  • Solomon – Jonathan Edwards
  • East Coast Story – Paul Stephenson

Congratulations to all the winners!

Longlisted Poems (50)

  • A lesson in rosewood
  • A winter loose with cruel dissolve
  • Adulthood
  • Advance decision
  • All clear
  • An Unreal Feeling
  • At the beginning of the war, my mother buried her laughter
  • Blue
  • But what is privilege
  • Diving into Paint
  • DNR Order, Still Life
  • Dowsing
  • East Coast Story
  • End of the Night Shift
  • Fireflies & Ice Cream
  • For the Bayraktar drone on the night of the Turkish invasion
  • Hold On
  • Infinite Possibilities
  • Kestrel Encounter
  • Learning to Live in the Forest
  • Liz tells me OnlyFans pays in USD
  • Meeting Mr Emmet
  • News from Agnieszka Just Across the Border
  • Nobody held a gun to your head

  • Of Shining Brass and Copper
  • One of these days I’ll do like David Hockney
  • Rehearsal
  • Rite of Passage
  • Seven feet of English
  • Shostakovich’s fifteenth
  • Silent Bells
  • Solomon
  • Strays, Thailand
  • Supreme Atavism
  • The fever
  • The Headcarriers of Seelampur
  • The Hope Of Birds
  • The Labrador Dojo
  • The Man Who Swims at Night
  • The Memory is a Second Grave
  • The right medicine
  • The shrinking of small distant things
  • This is when
  • Those Who Don’t Exist
  • Trigger
  • Thunder Music
  • Warning
  • What a joy it is
  • Whitby
  • Wicked Murk Spoked Edict

AUB International Poetry Prize 2022 — Digital Anthology

We're delighted to launch the 2022 AUB International Poetry Prize Anthology, designed by AUB student Keytrin Gyumova, and edited by AUB Creative Writing lecturer Elizabeth Woodgate. The anthology celebrates all prize-winning and longlisted poems from the competition, judged by Glyn Maxwell, and the work of our BA (Hons) Creative Writing students.

Chair of Judges: Glyn Maxwell

Glyn Maxwell's books of poetry include How The Hell Are You, which was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Award, Pluto, which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize in 2013, and The Nerve, which won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 2004. His book-length poem Time’s Fool is in development as a feature film with Fox Searchlight. In 2012 he published On Poetry, a popular critical guidebook, and in 2016 its fictional sequel, Drinks With Dead Poets. His plays include Liberty, which premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2008, and The Lifeblood, which was British Theatre’s ‘Best New Play’ at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004. He is also a librettist and novelist. During a ten-year spell in the USA he taught at Amherst, Princeton, Columbia and NYU, and in the UK has taught at the Universities of Warwick, Essex and Goldsmiths, and currently teaches on the MA at the Poetry School. He was Chair of Judges for the T S Eliot Prize in 2022.
Image of Glyn Maxwell

Competition Details

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Terms and Conditions

The AUB International Poetry Prize 2022 (the "Poetry Prize") is organised by Arts University Bournemouth ("AUB")...

A stack of open books on top of each other. A pencil is placed in the spine of the open book at the top of the pile.

Previous Winners

Last year we received over 300 entries from 17 countries, with poets responding to our competition theme of ‘Change’...

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A stack of open books on top of each other. A pencil is placed in the spine of the open book at the top of the pile.

Previous Winners

Last year we received over 300 entries from 17 countries, with poets responding to our competition theme of ‘Change’...
Image of a book shelf

Terms and Conditions

The AUB International Poetry Prize 2022 (the "Poetry Prize") is organised by Arts University Bournemouth ("AUB")...