Besides its annual anthologies, Friendly Street Poets has a long (and, yes, proud) history of bringing the work of emerging poets to a keen readership.
Independent and blind judging has given the results for the books that will appear in 2021 in the New Poets 22 (featuring three poets, as usual) and Single Poet volumes. The Winning and Highly Commended entries are:
New Poets 22
Winning
Legacy – Veronica Cookson
The Butterfly Defects – Rob Ferris
Valley Fleurieu – Susan O’Brien
Highly Commended
A Hapless Romantic – Nigel Ford
Life Poet – Nigel Ford
A Glimpse of Light – Claire-Louise Watson
Single Poet 2021
Winning
Lament – Michele M. Saint-Yves
Highly Commended
The Underside of Bark – Gaetano Aiello
The Natural World Does Somersaults – Shaine L. Melrose
Congratulations to all of the poets involved! We look forward to seeing the winning entries in print and to the launch of the titles.
The judges’ reports would normally have been read out at the winners’ announcement meeting. That was not possible due to COVID-19 restrictions so they can be read via the download links below.
Steve Evans
(for the FSP Management Committee)