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

‘Anticipation of Anaphylaxis’

‘While I am away’

‘Tastes like a toothache’

‘A survivor dreams a new career’

‘Tonight you are pregnant and your fetus has a gun’

‘The Bullet Renames’

‘Covenant’

‘Letter to a Lifeguard’

‘Speculations and Propositions on Footwear from the Cordwainers’ Descendent’

‘The night-sea defeats my PTSD tinnitus’

Congrats to the 10 prose poets who made the shortlist, and will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2.

The announcement of the winners will happen on the News page end of next week. So, pop back to see which made the final cut.

The NEW 2024 Plaza Poetry Prize (40 lines max) is open to enter. Judge: Moniza Alvi. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 31st May 2024.

Top 10 Microfiction Entries
(titles listed in no particular order)

Animals

Head in the Clouds

How to Catch Lampuki

Hungry Like the Wolf

Love Spines

#KarmaJudgementDay

Marcus Aurelius Has a Bad Haircut

Solstice

The Hanging Suit

Where They Hide

Congrats to the 10 writers who made the shortlist. They will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2

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

The NEW 2024 Plaza Poetry Prize (40 lines max) is open to enter. Judge: Moniza Alvi. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 31st May 2024.

Top 4 Flash Fiction Entries
(titles listed in order)

Thanks to our judge this year, David Gaffney. All comments listed below are his.

‘All in all a very high quality set of entries and I thank The Plaza Prizes for asking me to be the judge.’

1ST
MARVINS
SHERRY CASSELLS (CAN)
‘The winner, Marvins, starts out as a kind of hyper-ironic dismantling of creative writing story structure and character development but ends up delivering a fascinating prose-poetry style meander with many compelling images and ideas, reminding me of the work of M John Harrison and experimental writers like that. Some great lines such as “She pictured Marvins finding her in the chair on the porch with a purple-edged hole in her chest from where her hearts had finally leapt.”’

2ND
THE DEAD FOX AROUND HER NECK
TODD MURPHY (ENG)
‘My second choice is The Dead Fox Around Her Neck – I loved the way the dead fox brought her into contact with different people and seemed to influence her decisions throughout the story, so we really never know what she is going to do where she going to go or what she is going to think next. A great ending which points the reader towards an alluring unknown set of actions in the future which are undecipherable in a good way – “I closed my eyes for a while. I carried on walking, blind. It felt good to be uncertain of where I was going.”‘

3RD
3AM
SHERRY CASSELLS (CAN)
‘Coming in a strong third is 3AM. It’s about dreams – and although it’s often really dull hearing someone recount their dreams because nothing is at stake in these stories, nothing can be predicted and nothing means anything really – but in this story it’s how dreams relate to the two characters and how they in turn relate to the real world and the dream world. Some amazing lines in this one like this “I remember the urge to get drunk with the red-faced old men who would half-see the half-sing across sticky tables, their eyes resting on invisible things like cats do, like my father did, until his eyes went from watery to acute…”’

HIGHLY COMMENDED
DARK COUSIN
ROGER VICKERY (AUS)
‘And my fourth choice is Dark Cousin. I’m a little perturbed by the title but nevertheless its theme of old fashioned analogue photography and the way chemicals make images appear out of nowhere on light sensitive paper is a rich metaphor which the writer employs well and there are great lines in it “I wish I could as easily, dark cousin, poured developer across the negatives beneath your surface.”’

Congrats to these writers, who will be awarded their prizes at our second awards ceremony in Malta, in mid-October, 2024. They will also be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2.

The Plaza Poetry Prize (40 lines max) is open to enter. Why not experiment with a different form? Judge: Moniza Alvi. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 31st May 2024.

Winning Poetry Entries
(titles listed in reverse order)

All the comments below are from our judge, Tim Liardet.

‘Writing sixty-line poems is arguably more exacting than writing shorter poems. The risks are the loss of focus, direction and the leaking of energy along the way. A sixty-line poem, because it is longer, has more to say: in order to say more, it has to adhere to its internal logic. A sixty-line poem is double the length of the average size poem so it has to be able to carry its ambition. Dare I say it? It has to have just a little bit of epic intent. It has to know what it is aiming for and come at it from as acute an angle as possible. It has to start strongly and end strongly and not flag or wander or forget itself in the middle.

‘All the Plaza poems I read took account of these issues. Each in its own very particular way successfully mastered the form and made it their own. Each justified the choice to write a longer poem, established its logic, and stuck with it. Each was its own kind of epic. The most remarkable thing was the commitment to language. Not one of them settled for any sort of orthodox stance. The energy was sustained throughout, the trajectory kept. They were poems of great intensity sustained by the management of what, more often than not, was a longer-than-average line. They were memorably original, each held in place by an integrated voice. The poems used language to transform experience into something quite extraordinary.’

Highly Commended (4th) – ‘The Long Before’ by Autumn Richardson (CAN)

‘THE LONG BEFORE is a prose poem of exquisite movement, carefully wrought in eight sections: the touch is delicate, the atmosphere intense. It moves from acute observations of the natural world—The lake is a taut skin. No geese today’—to an equally intense and reflective interiority: ‘I will slough the dead cells from my body, make a censer / of this room, pour its smoke over me.’ The segues are risked, the unity never lost. All the smells of global warning infuse every word and the water-snake, Nerodia, is addressed directly. The poem is full of longing, anger and memory where the natural world and human instinct conflate: ‘…thoughts,’ writes the poet, ‘are falling like feathers from the kill.’ Memorable.’

3rd prize – ‘Gazcue: Socorro Sanchez con Santiago’ by Jose Buera (ESP)

‘GAZCUE: SOCORRO SANCHEZ CON SANTIAGO is a lifelike poem of technical elegance, skill and intelligence: what begins with the dog of ‘pure English pointer blood’ ends with a ‘calling for a dog that never comes.’ The tone is elegiac, and developed with great effect. The loose blank verse, written in immaculate sestets, is the ideal vehicle for telling this very particular story. Between the dog at the beginning and dog at the end, life teems, and the off-play between observation and imagination brings memorable lines: ‘The pavement takes a first gulp / of light from streetlamps, a cue for the late start /of the crepuscular orchestra…’ It is a poem of sounds: the dog’s woof jumps to the parrot’s replica woof which jumps to the claxons of the taxis which jump to the crickets and the tree-frogs. I can still hear all of them.’

2nd prize – ‘The First Rastaman in Space’ by Dora Taylor (ENG)

‘THE FIRST RASTAMAN IN SPACE is a witty, uplifting and compulsive fantasia written in Rastafarian dialect. The high-pitched energy never once dips from beginning to end of its forty-seven lines: ‘cha – how that likkle spec home to so much choopidness?’ Im look at the stars, and see each one a sparkling pickney’s eye’ says the first Rastaman looking down on earth. Though the tone is mischievous and the suddenness of imagery often very funny, the poem carries with it a serious political undertow. The long portmanteau lines bring movement, momentum, and maximise its field of vision. The voice is strong and confident, the focus fierce, the image-building terrific, but the poem’s first and assured strength is its music. I loved it. ‘The First Rastaman in Space’ is a euphonic triumph.’

1st prize – ‘Landswept’ by John D. Kelly (N. IRE)

‘LANDSWEPT is a courageous poem. It manages the short, tactfully punctuated line with such skill that it magnifies the telling detail and has a way of drawing the reader into an intimate relationship with the harrowing subject matter. It stayed with me for days. The poem speaks loudly and clearly of the destructive realities currently stealing the newsfeed. In so few words, it touches on Bucha, Irpin, and Gostomel as much as it touches on Gaza City, Deir el-Balah, and Rafah. The poet eschews ‘greedy hubris’ and ‘smart-assed lines’ and wishes the poem, above all else, rarely and emphatically, not to be about her/him/them. Literary ambition, irony, even language itself, is subsumed to what is being said as the poem moves almost soundlessly through the gasps of its white spaces towards a haunting, devastating conclusion.’

Well done to those 4 poets who won. They will receive their prizes at our 2024 awards ceremony and their poems will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology in October 2024, along with all those on the shortlist.

The NEW Plaza Poetry Prize (20 lines) is open to enter. Judge: Lachlan McKinnon. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 30th September 2024.

The Plaza Audio Poetry Prize (4 mins max) is also open to enter. Why not record your poetry? Judge: Paul Farley. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 30th June 2024.

Top 20 Flash Fiction Entries
(titles listed in no particular order)

The Velvet Tigress

Smaug

Harp

The Blaming Game

You The Sea

Back Door Man

A Perfect Life

Lot 365

A Rover P4 Drophead Coupe in Connaught Green

The Striker Inventory

The Mouth of The Word

The Dead Fox Around Her Neck

The Terrarium

Kerouac’s Next Chapter

Dark Cousin

3AM

Quiet Quiet Quiet

Marvins

The Gartcosh M73 Interchange is not Noted for its Proximity to Fjords

Mille Feuille

Congrats to the 20 writers who made the long list. The standard of entries was good. There were 162 entries in total (including Bursary and 50% Discounted categories).

Thanks for your patience. The announcement of the shortlist of 10 will happen on the News page end of next week. The final 10 will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2. So, pop back to see which made the cut. 

The NEW 2024 Plaza Poetry Prize (40 lines max) is open to enter. Judge: Moniza Alvi. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 31st May 2024.

Top 20 Microfiction Entries
(titles listed in no particular order)

Mr Dennis

A Better Job

Physical Geography

Hungry Like a Wolf

Head in the Clouds

The Worst Times Two

#KarmaJudgment Day

Two Taxi Rides

Animals

No More Beep-Beep

How to Catch Lampuki

Where They Hide

Snow Rites

Love In The Ruins

Amok

Offa’s Dyke

The Hanging Suit

Love Spines

In The River

Marcus Aurelius Gets a Bad Haircut

Congrats to the 20 writers who made the long list. The standard of entries was high. It’s great to see that microfiction is such a vibrant form and we’re happy at The Plaza Prizes to encourage poets and writers to experiment with it. There were 177 entries in total (including Bursary and 50% Discounted categories).

Thanks for your patience. The announcement of the shortlist of 10 will happen on the News page end of next week. The final 10 will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2. So, pop back to see which made the cut. 

The NEW 2024 Plaza Poetry Prize (40 lines max) is open to enter. Judge: Moniza Alvi. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 31st May 2024.

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

Covenant

An egg, a cup of dirt, and the desire to run free

On the Day David Malouf Personally Edited My Copy of an Open Book

Anticipation of Anaphylaxis

Letter to a Lifeguard

A Survivor’s Dream

Epistle in Spring

Speculations and Propositions on Footwear from Cordwainers Descendant

Hunger

The Bullet Renames

The Scent of Rosemary

Cells Hanging From Salon Tiles

The Night Sea Defeats my PTSD Tinnitus

No Country Nursing Home For This Old Man

Tonight you are pregnant, and your fetus has a gun

Clover

How to lose empathy

While I Am Away

Tastes Like Toothache

Congrats to the 20 poets who made the long list. The standard of entries was excellent. It’s great to see there are so many talented poets writing prose poems. There were 285 entries in total (including Bursary and 50% Discounted categories).

Thanks for your patience. The announcement of the shortlist of 10 will happen on the News page end of next week. The final 10 will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2. So, pop back to see which made the cut. 

The NEW 2024 Plaza Poetry Prize (40 lines max) is open to enter. Judge: Moniza Alvi. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 31st May 2024.

Top 20 Poetry (60 lines max) Entries
(titles listed in no particular order)

A Barrel for My Body and a Hare for My Head

Gazcue: Socorro Sanchez con Santiago

The First Rastaman in Space

My Great Grandfather’s Apron Shop

The Long Before

Emendations on Red

Speed-dating but I Sat Down Opposite a Grave-digger

The Verdict

Landswept

Seven shirts

Congrats to the 10 poets who made the shortlist. These final 10 will be published in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2.

The announcement of the winners will happen on the News page end of next week. So, pop back to see which poems make the final 4. 

The NEW 2024 Plaza Poetry Prize (40 lines max) is open to enter. Judge: Moniza Alvi. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 31st May 2024.

Top 4 Memoir: First Chapter Entries

Our judge, Nicole Treska, had this to say about the standard of entries, and the winners:

‘I was honored to judge the 2024 Plaza Memoir: First Chapters Prize. This year’s finalists transported me from my apartment in Harlem to beachfront hotel rooms under terrorist attack in Sri Lanka, and a somehow almost-as-menacing middle school lunchroom in England. Each of these submission displayed ruminations on memory, societal and personal illnesses, mortality and grief—all our eternal sources. At the same time, I saw these writers grapple with our modern maladies—financial instability, class and race status, and the failures on the systems we depend upon. This combination of created a rich reading experience, and much hope for the future of the genre.

‘It is no small feat to commit our searching questions, our fears and faults, to the page and share them with others, let alone in ways so thoughtful, funny, sad and hopeful. I applaud each contestant for the bravery to tell their story whole, as well as all of our contestants. Thank you for your work and congratulations.’

1st-Enter the Dragon Lady by Jude Ho (ENG)
‘I absolutely loved Enter the Dragon, and the way the author sets a scene, and executes her points with exacting language. The piece is sad and funny and probes at the underbelly of racism, assimilation, and the childhood need to fit in. I was moved by lines like: “But, aside from having face that is flat or yellow or wonky, I’m not sure what being Chinese really is. It’s a bit like being ugly, but heavy too, weighed down by something that I can’t see and don’t understand.” Looking forward to our Zoom meeting to discuss my one question: Do we need the survival myth?…(my initial suspicion is no.)’

2nd-Nobody Walks In America Anymore by Nazir Yacoob (MAL)
‘I loved this big adventure! NWiA is executed with a fine attention to detail, and skillful pacing and narration, I was so impressed with both the content of this excerpt, and the execution. I thought the development of scenes within the larger narrative were expertly handled, no small feat. I want to read this book.’

3rd-True Story of a Circus Freak by Rebecca Plume (ENG)
‘I wanted to keep listening to TSoaCF after the piece ended.The authors storytelling style showed a child learning about the world in ways that were original and entertaining, even when discussing the heavy or painful realizations that children often have about others and themselves.There is a wisdom in our narrator and her child self that is evident, ePlaven when the narrative seems light and fun. Sue Maroo Goes for a Walk is such an excellent chapter and example of this. The way that story encapsulates the author/book’s world—her influences, her language and lessons—quite masterful.’

4th (Highly Commended)-The Drive-In by A. Sincic (USA)
‘I loved the language in this story, and I especially loved the way the author drew scenes. The dialogue and details created a family I could see on the page. I found the syntax exciting, and really enjoyed it…funnily enough, my two editorial comments have to do with these two aspects I enjoyed so much. I think the current passage leans too heavily on dialogue, and some of it isn’t communicating enough important intel…I’d cut back, there! Also, the syntax, perhaps my favorite aspect of this piece- is very dense in the first few pages…it relaxes into more natural story-telling a few pages in, and I would suggest giving those first few pages the same space to breathe. I think tightening and lightening here and there will do wonders for this wonderful family story.’

Congrats to our winners! The winner will get mentoring from Nicole on their work. And £1,500. Not a bad prize.

Speaking of which – We have an unbeatable world class opportunity to shine. ENTER the NEW 2024 Plaza Literary: First Chapters Prize (5000 words max). OPEN NOW. Judged by US National Book Award Winner, Jason Mott. 1st prize: £1,500. Deadline: 31st July 2024.

Top 4 Crime: First Chapter Entries

Our judge, David Mark, is a master of the Crime genre. He has written eight novels in the McAvoy series: Dark Winter, Original Skin, Sorrow Bound, Taking Pity, Dead Pretty, Cruel Mercy, Scorched Earth and Cold Bones as well as two McAvoy novellas, A Bad Death and Fire of Lies, which are available as ebooks. His first historical thriller, The Zealot’s Bones, is out now. Praise for his novels:-

“Effortlessly blends the brutal and the tender, the dark and the light. Aector McAvoy is a true original. So is David Mark.”
Mick Herron, author of Dead Lions

“More twists and turns than a corkscrew through the eyeball.”
Val McDermid

“There is a good array of villains, and Mark is impressive in his sensitive portrayals of the relationships between the principal characters at work and home.”
The Times

David had this to say about the standard of entries:

‘Well, I have mixed feelings. On the plus side, there are lots of wonderful writers coming through. On the flip side, there’s only so much shelf space. There’s nothing a mid-list writer likes more than being given a glimpse at the people who are going to replace them! So, thanks for that. But in all seriousness, it’s been an honour to peer into some fantastically warped imaginations and to see that the art of good story-telling will be okay in the event of my untimely demise. Thanks to your entries I’ve delved into worlds of darkness, radiance, hope, redemption and taken a veritable trans-global journey into some exquisitely realised locations.’

What follows are David’s comments on the winners:-

1st place: Dead in the Water by Jude Simms

‘I adored this submission, bringing together the Holy Trinity of Plot, Place and Character in a way that should have agents salivating. It’s a remarkable self-assured piece of writing for a debut novelist and does a wonderful job of creating a richly textured landscape, using a gorgeously lyrical prise style to build a world which drew me in and held me prisoner. Historical crime fiction is such a difficult thing to get right, with the temptation to show off one’s impeccable research often getting in the way of character development and plot momentum. This sample found the perfect balance, as it did with its depictions of both the darkness and the light. A brilliant read.’

2nd place: Dutch Courage by Camilla McPherson

‘An exquisite piece of writing. The setting of the English bookshop was an inspired place to start and the way the writer brought the scene to life, lingering on those little details and elegances … it felt like a book by a writer who has been selling books in great numbers for a long time. There were echoes of such great literary talents as Helen Dunmore and Pat barker in the prose style, yet the narrative voice felt fresh and unique. I reached the end of the submission with an audible grunt of annoyance as I was already emotionally connected to the story and quite happy to forego the rest of my day in favour of reading the rest of it.’

3rd place: Neon Ghosts by K R Goto

‘Publishers don’t always know what they want, but they do seem to know what they’re afraid of. That being the case, it takes a brave author to embark upon a novel that is so gleefully far from the mainstream. It felt like nothing I had read before, which is something I so rarely get the chance to feel. A queer, feminist psychological drama set in Tokyo, and featuring a high-achieving special forces agent turned high-functioning addict with PTSD? It’s high-concept from the opening scene, but it feels fresh, real and thoroughly authentic. Moreover, it felt like a potential BookTok mega-hit, which is a phrase that should get even the most fearful commissioning editor picking up the phone. I enjoyed every word.’

Highly Commended (4th): Death Assured by Keith Porter

‘A tough, uncompromising and thoroughly compelling journey into an ugly, brutal world. I loved it! There’s a cleverness to the structure and a sense that the writer is thoroughly enjoying themselves, unspooling the story with a deft touch. Depicting serial killers and gangsters so often descends into caricature and pastiche but the characters here all felt fully realised and three-dimensional: deeply flawed, but human. The synopsis suggests that this is going to be an ambitious undertaking but the writer seems thoroughly equal to the task. British gangster noir has been under-represented in recent years. That may be about to change.’

Congrats to our winners! We hope you’ll agree – that’s some high praise from a judge.

ENTER the NEW 2024 Plaza Literary: First Chapters Prize (5000 words max). OPEN NOW. UNBEATABLE, WORLD CLASS OPPORTUNITY TO SHINE! Judged by US National Book Award Winner, Jason Mott. 1st prize: £1,500. Deadline: 31st July 2024.