Teesdale writer bags top poetry prize

A DALE writer who splits her time between Middleton-in-Teesdale and the Texas /Mexico border in the USA has won a coveted poetry prize.

Mary-Jane Holmes earned £5,000 after taking first place in this year’s Bridport Prize poetry competition for her entry entitled Siren Call.

The winning poem was selected from more than 4,250 entries by judge Lemn Sissay who said she was “hypnotised” by Ms Holmes’ effort.

Ms Holmes is a writer, teacher, translator and editor.

Her work has been published in numerous journals and anthologies including The Lonely Crowd, Prole, The Tishman Review, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts and Best Small Fictions 2016.

She is the recipient of the Martin Starkie Poetry Prize (2017), the Bedford International Poetry Prize (2017) and the Dromineer Fiction Prize (2014).

She has previously been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize both for poetry and flash fiction, the Doolin Prize for poetry, the Penfro Poetry Prize and was recently commended in the Settle Poetry Competition. She is currently chief editor of Fish Publishing Ireland and also editorial consultant at The Well Review, an international poetry journal based in Cork, Ireland.

She is completing a masters in creative writing at Kellogg College, Oxford, and her debut poetry collection will be published next year.

Established in 1973 and with more than £18,000 in prize money to be won annually, the Bridport Prize attracts entries from across the globe.

An anthology of this year’s winning entries, including Mary-Jane’s poem, is available from the Bridport Prize website at www.bridportprize.org. uk. The competition for 2018 will be launched early in the New Year.