All winners of the current competition will be announced on this page with links to all our previous poetry competition winners, specially commended entries and judge’s comments below.
The winners of our 19th competition are below. Scroll down to view judges’ comments. To read this year’s winners juct click on the poem title. The top 3 will open in a new webpage but the highly commended are for download.
To read previous years winning poems check out our anthologies page.
The 2025 Competition
1st Prize Notes from a transported convict – Mark Lewis (Kilgetty, Wales)
Mark Lewis was born and bred in Pembrokeshire, Wales. He worked in the museum sector for 30 years before going freelance in 2023 when he was able to dedicate more time to his creative writing. Mark is the author of two novellas and several dramatic performances.
His extended prose poem, Erimos, a moral-powered tale that blended timeless mythology and contemporary darkness, was published in 2024 and was praised for its sheer originality, imaginative use and control of language and impressive poetic and dramatic moments.
Mark’s second book, Anchor & Wing, a collection of poems, is due to be published by The Seventh Quarry Press in 2026. His plan in life is to “find professional tranquillity through the creation of the written word and personal joy in daily life with my wonderfully supportive wife, Emma.”
2nd Prize The language my grandmother spoke to the earth – Debbie Miller (Plymouth, England)
Deborah Miller is a poet and emerging audio-visual artist based in Devon, originally from Hampshire. A late arrival to poetry, she began writing during her Fine Art degree at Arts University Plymouth, where words first surfaced quietly between images, sound experiments, and long walks home.
Her work explores trauma, memory, and the spaces where language falters often drawing from lived experience with PTSD. Her poems are intimate, atmospheric, and grounded in the body. She works with voice recordings, layered soundscapes, and visual projection to create immersive pieces that invite stillness, reflection, and emotional resonance.
This winning poem is shaped by personal loss and ancestral memory. Her writing is often guided by echoes of her Welsh grandmother, whose gentle rituals with the land continue to root Deborah’s work in the quiet power of listening. She writes to honour what is felt but not always said.
3rd Prize What the moon wouldn’t do – Emma Williams (Ludlow, England)
Emma Williams worked in the NHS for thirty years before becoming a writer.
Her prose has featured in The Most Normal Town in England Anthology and been listed by The Cambridge Prize, Write by the Sea, ChipLitFest, Alpine Fellowship, the Bedford Competition and been awarded gold (twice) and silver medals by the Wenlock Olympian Society. Emma was the winner of the Segora International Short Story Prize.
She has published two novels; The Tortoise (2021) and Nothing but the Truth (2023). Her poems have been published in the London Independent Story Prize Anthology, The Amphibian Literary and Arts Journal, and Manx Reflections (2025). She lives in Shropshire, UK.
Instagram: tortoise_books
Buy books: Amazon
Highly Commended
The remaining top twenty highly commended in no particular order:
Uprising – Emma Williams (Ludlow, England)
The Archive of Accumulative Injustices – Suzanna Fitzpatrick (Orpington, England)
Canary in a Glass House – Vivienne Tregenza (Penzance, England)
Particulars – Gareth Writer-Davies (Brecon, Wales)
The owl and the pussycat are grounded – Anne Connolly (Edinburgh, Scotland)
One Hundred Words for Rain – Julie Sheridan (Barcelona, Spain)
Yr Wyddfa – Liz Beth Turner (Wales)
Saturday lunchtime Ponty Market 1974 – Mike Pullman (Hope Valley, England)
Back in the days when we walked like Egyptians – Paris Rosemont (Sydney, Australia)
Child – Claire Beynon (Dunedin, New Zealand)
two accordion players journey through Vivaldi’s winter – Diana Sanders (Corwen, Wales)
Unmoored – Anne Casey (Northbridge, Australia)
Llyn Y Fan Fach – Sue Moules (Lampeter, Wales)
Drone – Suzy Hobson (Newport, Wales)
When I think of my mother – Iris Anne Lewis (Kempsford, England)
Sirin – Jane Fuller (Port Logan, Scotland)
Oxytocin in the Bronze Age – Pamela Job (Wivenhoe, England)
Special mentions
In addition Mike also liked the following poems/poets, who also deserve a mention. In no particular order they are as follows:
Crocodile tears – Jane Sparrow-Niang
Oaths for breakfast – Louise G Cole
Red Balloons – Sharon Black
Milk – Lavinia Small
Charlie, this is your destiny – Sally Russell
For my father on his 90th birthday – Faith B Jones
Foxing – Sonny Mullings
A photographer and a poet go to map a monument – Chris Kinsey
Coal florist – Molly Thapviwat
Set-aside – Richard Arterton
Whistler (Curlew) – Miriam Mason
The silent years – Orfhlaith Nic Art
RIP transfers of love – Vincent De Souza
The Phurny – Mike Pullman
Stepfather – Jenny Mitchell
Results were announced on our website, Welsh Writers Facebook Group, various blogs and Twitter (X). We have also informed the UK national press, Literature Wales, Pontypridd Observer and associated district newspapers, SW Echo, the Western Mail, BBC Wales, Wales Arts Review, Nation Cymru, Ponty Pages, Storyville Books and RCTCBC as well as many organisations on our mailing list. Thanks to Mike Jenkins for judging this year’s competition, and thanks also to all those who entered.
We look forward to reading your work next year, which, sadly, will be our last competition!
Judge’s Comments
1st NOTES FROM A TRANSPORTED CONVICT – Mark Lewis
This outstanding poem immediately drew me in , not primarily because of its almost ship-shaped stream of consciousness, but the world of the convict’s mind it creates so vividly. It is guttural and visceral, with no room for sentiment. It is intense with sounds and descriptions taking you from street to boat to strange shore, summoning the tortuous life of its subject.
2nd THE LANGUAGE MY GRANDMOTHER SPOKE TO THE EARTH – Debbie Miller
A very different poem which gently and subtly pays homage to a grandmother and her close relationship with the soil . It develops imagery of language and creativity to do this. Both elegy and eulogy, it shows perfectly the grandmother’s skill with plants handed down through love to her granddaughter. The metaphors are as natural as the theme itself , accumulating like layers of earth.
3rd WHAT THE MOON WOULDN’T DO – Emma Williams
A poem of great wit and originality. I love the way it portrays the moon as nothing other than itself. In doing so, it exposes the sheer vanity of mankind who impose all kinds of features on it, ones which mirror our worst qualities at times such as those of greed and conquest.
On a hugely positive note, I must also add that this was the highest standard of any competition I’ve judged. So many really good poems. Da iawn pawb!
Mike Jenkins, August 2025
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Past Winners
Our first contest – 2007!
Photograph by Andrew Davies, 2007
To see lists of previous winners and read some of the winning poems, plus the judges’ comments use the links below:
See also our links page for details of other poetry web sites in Wales and beyond.
I personally loved the third ‘The Foundling Mother’s List of Pain’, the bond between the Mother and their child even when they are apart. The 2nd is too political for me and there is ignorance from both sides, it just hurts me too much, and frustrates me. The first is a great ekphrastic poem, though a little complicated for me.
I love them all 🙂
Can I by an anthology of this year’s winning poems, if so, please provide me with an address I can write to and order one.
We have two anthologies available and will have our third at the end of 2021 🙂
https://welshpoetry.co.uk/anthologies/
Congratulations to Damen!
Where can I find the winning poems to read ?
Thanks,
John (Thomas)
On this page – just click the poem’s name 🙂
This is awesome! Loved reading.
However , I still don’t know if my poem went through or not I didn’t get any confirmation from anyone.
Some brilliant poems here. Really enjoyed reading. Keep up the good work. 🙂
It has been really interesting to read the judge’s comments. As I have not made the list of near-misses I shall keep trying!