Cardiff International Poetry Competition

SWANSEA LECTURER SCOOPS
£5000 POETRY PRIZE

The results of the 2006 Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition were announced by one of the competition’s judges, Hilary Llewellyn–Williams at a ceremony held in St David’s Hall Cardiff on Thursday 11 May 2006.   

Swansea lecturer John Goodby took the prestigious £5000 first prize for his poem The Uncles. A well known name in poetry magazines and on the reading stage, this is his biggest win to date. He was delighted and said afterwards, “It is a great honour to join such distinguished past winners as Tiffany Atkinson, Nigel Jenkins, Ann Drysdale, Duncan Bush, Sheenagh Pugh and Gavin Bantock.” John is a senior lecturer at the University of Swansea and is an authority on modern British and Irish literature and culture since 1940, and is the author of a libretto and  A Birmingham Yank (Arc, 1998) a collection of poems. He is External Examiner for the University of Northumbria’s M.A in Creative Writing and helped to establish the poetry module on the M.A. Creative and Media Writing course in Swansea.

Second prize of £500 was awarded to Candy Neubert from Dartington in Devon for her poem Resurrection, with third prize of £250 going to Londoner Judy Brown for her poem Marbles. Five runners up won £50 each: Colin Sutherill, Laura Helyer, Elizabeth Gowing, Carol Anne Zlotowitz and Sue Hubbard.

The Capital Poet event at which the results were announced was a glittering culmination to Gillian Clarke’s successful stint as Cardiff’s first Capital Poet. Gillian read at the event with her special guests Kathryn Gray, Imtiaz Dharker and Maura Dooley. Wales Book of the Year longlisted poet Ifor Thomas introduced the evening.

The Cardiff International Poetry Competition is administered by Academi with the financial assistance of Cardiff Council.