Top 3 Audio Poetry Entries

The following comments in quotation marks are all from our judge, TS Eliot Winner, Anthony Joseph.

‘It was a real honour to judge the Plaza Audio Poetry Prize. One of the familiar tropes within contemporary poetry is the distinction, even argument, between the spoken performance and the written word. This line is increasingly, and thankfully becoming tenuous, as the poems here show, as they achieve a balance between sound and the page, as Kamau Braithwaite suggested poems should do, making ‘word sculpture in the ear’, returning poetry to its origins in the oral tradition while showing an intelligent engagement with form and the possibilities of language.’

3rd: The Leather Year by Ashlee Paris-Jabang (ENG)

‘A powerful, new consideration of the Windrush narrative which considers the difficulty of finding roots in exile. Its delivery moves between the delicate and the sonorous. Each word earns its place.’

2nd: The Scallcrows by John D.Kelly (N. IRE)

‘There’s some complex and considered use of sound here, a lyrical quality to the line, and a nuanced use of a Irish carrion crow metaphor which makes the poem both personal and universal. A poem which really rewards repeated listening.’

1st: The Men at My Fence by Julie Sheridan (SCO)

‘There is a assured, euphonious quality to the performance of this poem. The poet’s use of rhyme and rhythm – especially in its use of internal rhyme – matches content to form, while the extended metaphor of intrusion and resistance gives it power, cohesion and shape.’

Congratulations to the 3 poets who made the final cut. We’d also like to highly commend Tom’s Pouch of Cure-stones by Paul McMahon (IRE).

To build on the moderate success of this competition – we will be running The Plaza Audio Poetry Prize again next year, with poet, writer and broadcaster, Paul Farley, as judge. Deadline: June 30th, 2024. So, plenty of time to get writing to record your work. This is a great opportunity to break into audio-publishing.

The NEW Plaza Poetry Prize (20 lines) is open to enter NOW. Judged by Rory Waterman. 1st prize: £1,000. All those who entered Audio Poetry can email us for a 50% discount link: simon@theplazaprizes.com

Top 10 Audio Poetry Entries
(titles listed in no particular order)

The Ministry for Loneliness

The Scallcrows

Backdating My Love for You

The Hitmen of the Gods

The Glen Miller Story

The Men at My Fence

Moon

The Leather Year

Morning Song

Tom’s Pouch of Cure-stones

Congratulations to the 10 poets who made the long-list. The standard of entries was really high, lots of brilliant work. There were 319 entries in total (including Bursary and 50% Discounted categories), which was pretty good for a new concept comp.

The announcement of the shortlist of 10 will happen on the News page next week. So, pop back to see which audio poems made the cut. 

The NEW Plaza Poetry Prize (20 lines) is open to enter. Judged by Rory Waterman. 1st prize: £1,000. All those who entered Audio Poetry can email me for a 50% discount link: simon@theplazaprizes.com

To build on the moderate success of this competition – we will be running The Plaza Audio Poetry Prize again next year, with poet, writer and broadcaster, Paul Farley, as judge. Deadline: June 30th, 2024. So, plenty of time to get writing to record your work. This is a great opportunity to break into audio-publishing.

Top 20 Audio Poetry Entries
(titles listed in no particular order)

The Dragonkin

I=0

Ghost Words

Nobody’s Home

On the Bay

Flittermouse

Don’t Speak its Name

Lighter and Princess

Speed Trap

Candid

The Ministry for Loneliness

The Scallcrows

Backdating My Love for You

The Hitmen of the Gods

The Glen Miller Story

The Men at My Fence

Moon

The Leather Year

Morning Song

Tom’s Pouch of Cure-stones

Congratulations to those talented 20 who made the long-list. The standard of entries was really high, lots of brilliant work. There were 319 entries in total (including Bursary and 50% Discounted categories), which was pretty good for a new concept comp.

The announcement of the shortlist of 10 will happen on the News page next week. So, pop back to see which audio poems made the cut. 

The NEW Plaza Poetry Prize (20 lines) is open to enter. Judged by Rory Waterman. 1st prize: £1,000.

If you’re interested in all things Audio – we will be running The Plaza Audio Story Prize in collaboration with Punch Audio in Hollywood next year. So, get writing to record your work, and break into audio-publishing.

Top 3 Winners

Congratulations to our winners. All comments below are from our judge, Pascale Petit.

“The ten shortlisted poems were wonderfully varied, but there were quite a few travel and on-the-road poems, perhaps because of our increasingly migrant populations. Mountains and nature also featured in many. It was hard to decide on the winners because the standard was high. With the top three, I took my time choosing which would be first, second, and third – all are so good in different ways.”

3rd Place: ‘The wheels of my wagon are possibly square’ by Pete Concahsmith (ENG)

“Surreal, absurd, memorable – an exuberant prose poem that presents its striking image of the extraordinary wagon – possibly an allegory for human life on earth – as it rumbles on like a kinetic exhibit in a gallery, garish, enigmatic, an impossible anomaly for our impossible times. Reading this poem was a lot of fun, and I’m guessing that the poet had fun writing their phantasmagorical tableau.”

2nd Place: ‘How to lose a whole forest’ by Jenny Pollak (AUS)

“This stunning poem culminates in an original image of the sea as a lion devouring a forest as if the forest is an antelope. We are slowly led to this denouement by eating and mouth similes, a tongue, teeth, breakfast, but eventually, the domestic scene is overwhelmed by the oceanic. I’m left wondering if this is a visceral depiction of rising sea-levels due to climate change. The lines reveal their theme slowly, beginning with the microcosm of an insect, and I like how philosophical thoughts intersperse the main process of inundation.”

1st Place: ‘Sweet Bananas’ by Maria Castro Dominguez (ESP)

“I love how this poem doesn’t tell me anything, just shows its vibrant story. There’s an erupting mountain and a couple of homes beneath it, and what might be a stand-off between humanity and the planet. Or, it’s a simple tale of how one volcano impacted two people. The tercets develop the catastrophe at a fast pace, organically, and through precise details which paint a true and real picture full of emotional impact. It lands on one last gorgeous detail, which echoes the yellow of the sweet bananas before they went black. A tragic, but deftly handled lyric, leaving me with a sense of the power of our planet and the helplessness and courage of humans, foolish contrasted with the wiser dolphins and their attuned senses. Congratulations to the poet!”

Well done to our three prizewinners. We’d also like to highly commend a poem: ‘When you feel so very small’ by Wren Siofra Lloyd.

We’ll be awarding the prizes in Valletta on 18th October, 2023, as part of our collaboration with the Malta Book Festival.

Our latest competition, The Plaza Poetry Prize (20 lines max), is now open for entries. Judged by Rory Waterman. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 30th October 2023.

Top 10 Poetry (40 lines max) Entries
(titles listed in no particular order)

The Road
The Green Room
How to Lose a Whole Forest
The Wheels of My Wagon are Possibly Square
Sweet Bananas
The Rub
When You Feel So Very Small
She Whispers Us All Awake
Bergtagen
Wolf’s Bane

Congratulations to those who made the shortlist. The announcement of the Winners (top 3) will happen on the News page next week. So, pop back to see which stories made the cut.

Top 20 Poetry (40 lines max) Entries
(titles listed in no particular order)

The Road
Watching My Brother From The Edge
The Green Room
How to Lose a Whole Forest
The Wheels of My Wagon are Possibly Square
Dupuytren’s Contracture
Before 23
Time of Day
Sweet Bananas
The Bull and The Pharaoh
The Rub
When You Feel So Very Small
She Whispers Us All Awake
My Childhood Dog
Lies
Past
Shango
Bergtagen
10 Observations of Quarry Tiling
Wolf’s Bane

Congratulations to those who made the long list. The standard of entries was high. There were 576 entries in total (including Bursary and 50% Discounted categories).

The announcement of the shortlist of 10 will happen on the News page next week. So, pop back to see which stories made the cut.

Top 3 Short Story

Congratulations to our winners. All comments below are from our judge, Annie DeWitt.

“I was struck most by the international nature of these submissions – which traversed the globe in both setting and sentiment. Each offering their own rare gem in compressed form, narratively excavating what it means to be human in these fraught contemporary times.”

3rd Prize: Cedok 87 by Sinead ni Braoin (IRE)

“Translation is at the center of this transportative short story which, on its surface, paints a grainy picture of an English-speaking couple’s fraught road trip from West Germany to Prague, the Czech capital. The social and political undertones are what interests me most here. How does young love, and the expectations that go with it, mirror the simple act of translating languages which often don’t mesh due to disparate personal histories.

2nd Prize: The Horse by Randy Rex (USA)

“‘The Horse’ puts me in the mind of my favorite DeLlilo novella, The Body Artist, with its meditation on how loss inhabits the living. An elderly woman wanders about town with a wooden spoon in her pocket looking for her husband, whom no-one seems to have seen or even, strangely, even to have known. Is she suffering dementia? Has the husband died? Did she really love him at all? Is his disappearance a manifestation of her own willful descent out of love into habit and decay?”

1st Prize: Dark Birdy Eyes by Lou Kramskoy (ENG)

“As George Saunders says in his inimitable essay on craft, “Rise, Baby Rise,” the quickest way to elevate the stakes in a short story is to create a series of interesting “gas-stations” which “fling our little car forward.” That’s exactly what this beautifully crafted short short achieves. A woman’s mourning for her lost son is captured in a series of scenes that escalate in their surreal brevity.”

Well done to the winners. We’ll be awarding the prizes in Valletta on 18th October, 2023, as part of our collaboration with the Malta Book Festival.

Top 10 Short Story (5000 words) Entries
(titles listed in no particular order)

The Letter Lady
The Horse
Hamingja
I Am a Helium Balloon
The Ballad of Rachel Bradley
Dark Birdy Eyes
One of the Roads Taken
Cedok ’87
The Jewelled Sea
Reunion

Congratulations to those who made the shortlist. The announcement of the winners will happen on the News Page next week. So, pop back to see which stories made the final cut.

Top 20 Short Story (5000 words) Entries
(titles listed in no particular order)

The Letter Lady
The Horse
Hamingja
The Tattooist Shop at 99 1/2 Portabello Road
The Arsonists
Grid Reference
The Crossing
I Am a Helium Balloon
The Ballad of Rachel Bradley
Reunion
Rosie’s Rain
We Don’t Talk About Swastikas
Cracked
Dark Birdy Eyes
One of the Roads Taken
Cedok 87
The Jeweled Sea
Everyday Magic
The Woman Who Ate Her Own Children
The Gog Magogs

Congratulations to those who made the long list. The standard of entries was high. There were 261 entries in total (including Bursary and 50% Discounted categories).

The announcement of the shortlist of 10 will happen on the News Page same time next week. So, pop back to see which stories made the cut.

Top 3 Literary: First Chapters

Congratulations to our winners. All comments below are from our judge, Simon Trewin.

“I loved judging this prize as each of the entries gave a tantalising glimpse into that new slightly out-of-focus world one encounters when beginning to read a new author and a new book. As a reader one isn’t quite sure of the rules or the literary toolkit one needs to embark on a journey into a strange and new land and this year I truly went on a series of strange and wonderful journeys – some unsettling, some heartwarming but all attention-grabbing. As an agent who reads many many words a year I long for that moment when I quickly forget I am reading a book and I just go with the prose wherever it wants to take me. Thank you to all the authors I read and I hope I get to read more of your work in the future.”

3rd Prize: Madrid Haunts by Mary Brzustowicz (USA)

“The economy of language here was especially impressive as was the author’s ability to take a simple object such as a ring and make it a three-dimensional character.”

2nd Prize: The Recipe of You by Kieran Marsh (IRE)

“I liked how the author let the layers of this story unpeel slowly and very skillfully but with an increasingly potent and poignant sense of impact.”

1st Prize: Ghost Snow & River by Shelley Trower (ENG)

“I thought GHOST SNOW AND RIVER was remarkable – a brilliant premise with a multi-layered concept that put me in mind of an early Christoper Nolan film with elements of Margaret Atwood in there to boot. Multiple personalities and deep-seated fears all grouping together to create something truly gripping. I have no idea where this novel is going to take me but I am certainly keen to find out.”

We’ll be awarding the prizes in Valletta on 18th October, 2023, as part of our collaboration with the Malta Book Festival.