We are also delighted to reveal that the Runner-up's for the Poetry Award 2020 are;

Elena Croitoru

Elena has an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. Her work has been selected for the Best New British and Irish Poets 2019 and she won second place in the Edward Thomas Award, third place in the Open House Poetry Competition and was highly commended in the Wales Poetry Award. She was shortlisted for the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize, Wasafiri New Writing Prize, Bridport Prize & other awards. She is also editing her first novel & working on a poetry collection.

Click here to read Elena's work. 

Ruby Fatimilehin 

A 20-year old who is originally from Manchester and is currently study English Literature at the University of Leeds. I am of mixed Nigerian and English heritage and these identities, combined with my Mancunian pride, heavily influence my work. My poetry blends vivid metaphors and images of the natural world with urban landscape and resonant voice. I have enjoyed writing poetry from a young age, and I am delighted to have been shortlisted for the Martín Crawford Award for Poetry 2020.

Click here to read Ruby's work.

The shortlist for the Poetry Award 2020 includes;

 Estelle Price

Estelle completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester in 2016. Previous to that she worked as a lawyer in London and Manchester and ran an international charity with projects in Nairobi, Kenya. Since completing her MA Estelle’s poetry has been placed or shortlisted in many competitions including the National Poetry Competition, Bridport Prize, Canterbury Poet of the Year, Much Wenlock, the London Magazine, Yorkmix, Manchester Cathedral, Wells, Bangor, Vers and Welshpool. She was the winner of the 2018 Book of Kells Prize. Poems have appeared in the Paper Swans, Three Drops from a Cauldron and Stony Thursday Book anthologies and the Smith|Doorstep: The Result is What You See Today anthology. Estelle is working on a collection of poems themed around the Bloomsbury Group and also two pamphlets of poems, one linked by the spring bulb, Galanthus, the other by the shifting concept of ‘home.’

Maia Elsner

Maia grew up between Oxford and Mexico City, and began writing poetry while living in Massachusetts, USA. She was shortlisted for the 2019 White Review Poetry Prize and commended for the 2020 Geoff Stevens Poetry Prize. Her poems have been published in British, Canadian and American journals, including Magma, Wildness, Blackbox Manifold, Colorado Review, The Missouri Review, The Carolina Quarterly, The Ekphrastic Review, among others.

Patrick James Errington

Poems by Patrick appear in journals and anthologies like Best New Poets, Best New British and Irish Poets, Ambit, Boston Review, The Cincinnati Review, Copper Nickel, wildness, & Oxford Poetry, & in two pamphlets, Glean (2018) & Field Studies (2019). He has also won several prizes, including the Wigtown, The London Magazine, the Plough, & the National Poetry Competitions, & was the recipient of the 2020 Callan Gordon Award from the Scottish Book Trust. Originally from Canada, Patrick now lives in Scotland & teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Edinburgh.