Inaugural Charles Rischbieth Jury Poetry Prize Winner

Congratulations to Melinda Bufton who was the 2019 successful recipient of the inaugural Charles Rischbieth Jury Poetry Prize. 

Melinda’s poem titled ‘Butterscotch’ was highly regarded by the selection panel with the following comments:

"Taking its cues from a short essay by Donald Hall in the The New Yorker, the lines of 'Butterscotch' slide ahead of themselves, spill over the edge, testing the indulgence of Hall's 'feckless' solitude, and gifting us a wittier, wryly feminist script, rich in ironic asides and surprising turns. Consequently, the judges had to agree they could never again take American pastoral as seriously as it takes itself. Both playful and critical, this poem contributes something quite new to the fraught problem of writing with ‘nature’ today."

In addition to ‘Butterscotch’ the selection panel also held the following poems in high regard as the commendable runner-ups 
• ‘Chlorophyll & casein’ – written by Rachael Mead
• ‘This is Not the House’ – written by David Stavanger
• ‘Freefall’ – written by Heather Taylor Johnson

An event to recognise Melinda and the runner-ups was held on 18th November 2019. 

A call for the 2020 Prize applications is expected to go out in mid-2020. Further information regarding the prize is available here.