The award is for a graduating student at the University of Worcester whose work demonstrates an outstanding achievement in the writing of poetry. Eligible portfolios are shortlisted by the university, with V. Press editor and director S.A. Leavesley choosing the winner.
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2024-25 V. Press Prize for Poetry
V. Press is very very excited to announce that the winner of this year's V. Press Prize for Poetry is Cherine El-Bash!
This year's V. Press Prize for Poetry shortlist of four manuscripts chosen by the University of Worcester was particularly strong and wide-ranging, each one containing cohesively linked poems.
V. Press editor Sarah Leavesley enjoyed the interesting perspectives and forms used to create innovative, thought-provoking and moving poetry. In addition to striking lines, images and individual poems, she was also impressed by the care and crafting in getting each shortlisted set of poems to work together as a whole.
After numerous re-readings, she eventually picked ‘The furthest island’ by Cherine El-Bash as the winner of the V. Prize for Poetry 2024-25. This manuscript was both very moving and very striking, bringing together multiple different strands and influences to create poems which cast life and the surrounding world in a new light. In ‘The furthest island’, experience is simultaneously familiar and strange, with unusual imagery and language used to powerful narrative and emotional effect.
Sarah is looking forward to working with Cherine El-Bash on their pamphlet for publication by V. Press in 2025.
2023 V. Press Prize for Poetry
V. Press is very very delighted to announce that the winner of this year's V. Press Prize for Poetry is Ella-Louise Fisher!
This year's V. Press Prize for Poetry shortlist of four manuscripts chosen by the University of Worcester was particularly strong and varied.
V. Press editor Sarah Leavesley enjoyed the range of inventive, innovative, humorous, thought-provoking and moving poems in the shortlisted selections. In addition to striking lines, images and individual poems, she was also impressed by the care and crafting in getting these poems to work together as a whole, linked by theme, form/presentation or a narrative thread.
Deciding between these manuscripts was tough, but she eventually picked ‘Robins, Feathers, Pearls’ by Ella-Louise Fisher as the winner of the V. Prize for Poetry 2023 because of the completeness of its moving relatable narrative of grief and healing. Powerful precise imagery, techniques like repetition and a range of forms are used effectively across these poems to highlight different aspects of loss and love, while also reinforcing each other and the overall narrative.
Sarah is looking forward to working with Ella-Louise on her pamphlet for publication by V. Press in 2024.
2022 V. Press Prize for Poetry
A shortlist of eight anonymous manuscripts was sent over for this year’s prize by the University of Worcester’s creative writing team.
Editor Sarah Leavesley said: “This year’s shortlist was exceptionally strong, demonstrating a strong sense of structuring and theming of the manuscripts as a whole, encompassing a wide range of forms, including experimental techniques, as well as striking imagery and lines within the individual poems.
“Picking a winner from these wasn’t easy, but I eventually went with ‘Braised in wine’ by Trudi Holland. An evocative use of food throughout this manuscript both whets the reader’s appetite and explores how what we eat feeds into (nearly) every other aspect of life, including body image, self-worth and relationships with others. This is also coupled with compelling use of the second person and a mastery of striking last lines.
“My runner-up is ‘Gates’s Monster’ by Amber Horne for its original slants and relevant contemporary feel combined with an impressive range of form and experimental techniques, as well as great use of sequences threaded across the manuscript.”
2021 V. Press Prize for Poetry
A shortlist of four anonymous manuscripts was sent over for this year’s prize by the University of Worcester creative writing team.
Editor Sarah Leavesley said: “I really enjoyed reading this year’s shortlisted manuscripts for the V. Press Prize for Poetry, my congratulations to the writers on their work and crafting.
“My winner is ‘Creature without building’, a strongly themed, hard-hitting and urgent selection of powerful poems, which don’t shy away from tackling difficult experiences. There is pain and there is violence, but there is also beauty. Striking lines, vibrant imagery, linguistic play and crafting make this an important portfolio that continues to resonate long after reading.
“MIROH also stood out to me as the runner-up because of its admirable range of form, combining recognisable contemporary dilemmas with folklore elements to create new narratives with haunting rhythms. A moving and thought-provoking selection.”
2020 V. Press Prize for Poetry
V. Press is very very delighted to announce the winner of the 2020 V. Press Prize for Poetry run in conjunction with the University of Worcester.
V. Press editor Sarah Leavesley has chosen 'May We All Be Artefacts' by Chloe Hanks as this year's winner, with the winning pamphlet based on this portfolio to be published by V. Press in spring 2021.
She said: “This year’s winning portfolio for the V. Press Prize for Poetry is ‘May We All Be Artefacts’ – chosen from the University of Worcester’s shortlist of five for its striking and thought-provoking imagery, focal slants and choice of words. These are poems crafted with a painter’s eye for vivid details and a poet’s ear for language, its sounds and music. The scenes brought to life feel real, relevant and resonant.”
She said: “This year’s winning portfolio for the V. Press Prize for Poetry is ‘May We All Be Artefacts’ – chosen from the University of Worcester’s shortlist of five for its striking and thought-provoking imagery, focal slants and choice of words. These are poems crafted with a painter’s eye for vivid details and a poet’s ear for language, its sounds and music. The scenes brought to life feel real, relevant and resonant.”
2019 V. Press Prize for Poetry
Announcing the 2019 V. Press Prize for Poetry winner, Sarah Leavesley said: “This year’s shortlist from the University of Worcester featured five manuscripts with a delightfully varied selection of themed and focussed writing, across a variety of styles/forms including some stunning vispo.
“Kelly Williams’ ‘yngordna’ (androgny spelled backwards) is a bold and brave exploration of gender, sexuality and love within and against societal expectations. Bristling with vivid imagery, vibrant language and powerful emotions, these poems are not afraid to challenge conventional boundaries in poetry as life. The selection’s focussed theme is reinforced by a natural fluid flow in the poems’ ordering, just as the intensity of the lines is balanced by the poems’ use of line breaks and white space. A fresh and striking selection.
“I was also very struck by Miguel Guerreiro Lourenco’s ‘Writing the Truth’ – a selection of powerful poems that manages the feat of feeling imaginative yet also very real and moving, reinforced again by the choices of form and layout.”
Sarah worked with Kelly Williams on their pamphlet, Ynygordna, published at the end of April 2020. Runner-up Miguel Guerreiro Lourenco receives a selection of V. Press titles.
The inaugural 2018 prize was awarded to Margaret Adkins for her portfolio ‘Mingled Space’. Working with V. Press guest editor Ruth Stacey, Margaret's V. Press Prize for Poetry pamphlet is Mingled Space.
Announcing the 2018 V. Press Prize for Poetry winner, Sarah Leavesley said: “In ‘Mingled Space’, Margaret Adkins weaves together striking imagery, evocative speech and a variety of form and techniques to create a wide-ranging and beguiling look at family, society and life. This is a vivid selection of poems that I can see, taste, feel – a worthy winner of the inaugural V. Press Prize for Poetry.”
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