Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition 2024 Prize Ceremony

At the prize-giving ceremony of the Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition 2024, there will be readings from the winning and highly commended poets, each responding to the ecopoetry theme.

Encompassing environment and place, the international poetry prize was open to anyone and invited poets to address the mounting pressures of the climate emergency, and human influence and impact over the environment.

The competition was judged by its organiser and Manchester Cathedral Writer in Residence (and organiser of Bradford’s regular poetry reading series More Song) Tom Branfoot, along with the poets Ella Duffy and Emily Oldfield, and Dean Rogers Govender of Manchester Cathedral, who said “the winners represent remarkable achievements”.

Tom Branfoot said: “We had a record number of entries to the competition this year, with around 550 individual poems. It was a privilege to read ruminations on the climate emergency, reflections on nature, and brilliant evocations of place by global poets. The high quality of submissions made judging difficult, yet the shortlisted poets shone out.”

The winning poem was Dominic Leonard’s ‘Eschatology’, described as: “an unsettling meditation on nature, consumption and pollution underpinned by a theological impulse.” From West Yorkshire, Dominic Leonard’s poetry pamphlets love, bring myself (2019) and Dirt (2021) are published by Broken Sleep, and his writing can be found in The Poetry Review, PN Review, Poetry London and the TLS. In 2019 he won an Eric Gregory Award and in 2022 he won the Oxford Poetry Prize.

Second prize went to Rachel Bower (soon to be seen reading from her debut novel, It Comes From The River, at Blackwells) for ‘Bilberry Bumblebee Haibun (Bombus monticola)’, and third prize was awarded to Faber & Faber author Richard Skinner for ‘Ingleby Greenhow’.

Rachel and Richard will be performing in the Cathedral, and Dominic will perform virtually. Of the 10 poets named in the highly commended category, five will be on stage: Sally Baker, Janet Dean, Yanita Georgieva, Madeleine Heyworth and Penny Sharman. The remaining commended poets are Lauren Camp, Mary Anne Clark, Ross Cogan and Carolyn Oliver.

A pamphlet featuring all winning and highly commended poems will be available at the free event, and light refreshments will be served.