Adjudicator Maggie Butt has awarded the 31st Frogmore PoetryPrize to Emily Wills.
This
is the third time Emily has won the Prize: her previous successes were in 2012
(awarded by Janet Sutherland) and 2013 (awarded by Stephanie Norgate). She
joins the distinguished company of Caroline Price, another three-times winner,
and John Latham and Howard Wright, who have both won twice. Emily works as a GP
in Gloucestershire and her latest collection is Unmapped (The Rialto,
2014).
Maggie Butt says the winning poem, ‘Her Labour’s Fruits’, ‘leapt
out at me from the first reading. The first line ‘the buttery cool of milk just
on the turn,’ held promise which was fulfilled over and over again with sensual
images, tastes and colours. I was immersed and then led into the slow reveal of
the viewpoint of the speaker, the accomplished way the poet trusts the reader
to complete the story.’
 |
| Emily Wills, three-times Frogmore Prize winner |
Runner-up
Vaughan Pilikian, a film-maker and Sanskrit scholar, was a candidate for the
Oxford Professorship of Poetry in 2010. His 15-line, single-sentence poem ‘May
It Be You’ uses
vivid imagery ‘fluted/in plainsong,/ shuttled in the blood,’ musical repetition
and religious allusions to create a multi-faceted and jewel-like love poem.’
Maggie advises: ‘Read it to someone you love!’
Other poets shortlisted for this year’s Prize were Nicola
Daly, Sarah Doyle, Alan Dunnett, Jonathan Edwards, Katie Hale, Anthony Head,
Sarah Wallis and Mary Williams. In addition, ‘Surfer’ by Emily Wills also
reached the shortlist.
