On 11th April at 8 pm, Jonathan Edwards will announce the prize winners in our 2023 Open Poetry Competition in an event at the Royal Wells Hotel in Tunbridge Wells. The seven prize winners will read their winning poems either on zoom or live. Following that, Jonathan will treat us to a reading from his own poetry.
Jonathan is a very well-known poet and editor. His first collection, My Family and Other Superheroes (Seren, 2014), received the Costa Poetry Award and the Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice Award. It was shortlisted for the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. His second collection, Gen (Seren, 2018), also received the Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice Award, and in 2019 his poem about Newport Bridge was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. He has read his poems on BBC radio and television, recorded them for the Poetry Archive, and led workshops in schools, universities and prisons. He has been a judge for the National Poetry Competition and the Wales Book of the Year, a Literature Wales mentor of emerging writers, and a Gladstone’s Library writer-in-residence. He lives in Crosskeys, South Wales.
The event is open to non-members of the Society for a mere £3 on the door. Do come along!
The Kent & Sussex Poetry Society 