{"id":1115,"date":"2023-04-14T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/?p=1115"},"modified":"2023-04-20T11:35:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T11:35:16","slug":"judging-milton-keynes-litfests-poetry-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/judging-milton-keynes-litfests-poetry-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Judging Milton Keynes LitFest\u2019s Poetry Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent months, several members of our Creative Writing team have been collaborating with our local bookish friends at Milton Keynes Literary Festival.<\/p>\n

On Saturday 15th April, lecturer Lania Knight<\/a> interviewed fellow novelist and life writer Kit de Waal<\/a> about the extraordinary journey she has made since first voluntarily reading a novel at the age of 22.\"MK<\/a><\/p>\n

Saturday was also be a big day for those writers who have been shortlisted for MKLitFest\u2019s MinK2023<\/a> Writing Competition. In the leadup to tomorrow\u2019s announcement<\/a> of the winners, we caught up with Open University PhD graduand, Patrick Wright<\/a>, who acted as a judge<\/a> for the poetry categories.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tell us a little about your first encounters with poetry and your journey to becoming a poet. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My mother used to recite quite a bit of poetry around the house when I was growing up \u2014 poems such as \u2018Night Mail<\/a>\u2019 by W.H. Auden<\/a> and William Wordsworth<\/a>\u2019s \u2018Daffodils<\/a>\u2019. This was my first introduction to rhythm and rhyme. We also had a few anthologies lying around that I\u2019d dip into. I recall studying poems by Norman Nicholson<\/a> at school and I was especially taken by \u2018Windscale<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>My interest was only really piqued though by my discovery as a teenager of Sylvia Plath<\/a>. I saw then what poetry could do in terms of confessionalism and free verse. I began to experiment with writing my own poems at this time \u2014 without a clue about what I was doing. It wasn\u2019t until I studied for an MA in Creative Writing, at the Centre for New Writing, University of Manchester<\/a>, that I truly started to learn the craft and see myself as a poet.<\/p>\n

How has winning awards and having poems selected for anthologies affected your writing life? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s given me encouragement. Poetry can be a solitary activity and there are times when I wonder if it\u2019s worth the investment. Is it too rarefied or self-indulgent? However, moments of praise and recognition always make the sacrifice worthwhile. There can also be a tinge of glamour at times. Though I\u2019ve learnt to not feel too intensely about the ups and the downs. I can\u2019t rely on the fruits at the end of the process: writing must be enjoyed for its own sake; and yet there\u2019s certainly a kick that comes with having work accepted by a magazine or anthology, and that feeling can be quite addictive. I\u2019m now more confident too and willing to take additional risks: with form for example or having the courage to break the rules I was taught. With the success that\u2019s come my way, I\u2019m also persuaded that my poems can sit alongside the poets I admire.<\/p>\n

You are an award-winning poet yourself, and now you have judged MK Litfest\u2019s flash fiction competitions. From your experience on both sides of the process, what would you say makes for a prize-winning poem? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I suppose it must tick several boxes at once. Technical elements should be considered; but there\u2019s also the theme, the way a poem strikes at the heart of something in the zeitgeist, or how it leaves an impression. There\u2019s also the inevitable subjective aspect, and what I think works best at a given moment. It\u2019s often fine margins \u2014 and I have no doubts that my thoughts as a judge might have changed if I\u2019d read the same poems again another time or in a different mood. Taste and a complex set of characteristics that the reader values (some of which are hard to pin down) will often shape the final verdict. So, my message to poets is: Don\u2019t be discouraged and keep writing. There\u2019s every chance that next time you will have your work chosen.<\/p>\n

Tell us a bit about some of the poems you shortlisted for MK Litfest. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 14-19 group I enjoyed \u2018My Roots\u2019, \u2018To all you ash-grey men\u2019, and \u2018The Aftermath\u2019. I thought that \u2018My Roots\u2019 was particularly impressive with the poet\u2019s clear adherence to the theme (Milton Keynes and green spaces), awareness of form, organised stanzas, and memorable images.<\/p>\n

In the 20-plus group, I liked \u2018The Green\u2019, \u2018The Other One\u2019, and \u2018Covid Spring\u2019. Each of these had a distinctive voice and demonstrated a striking or unusual use of language. \u2018The Green\u2019 stood out for me with its neat couplets and appreciation of sound.<\/p>\n

How has your work and research at the OU shaped you as a poet? \u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Looking back, my PhD in Creative Writing (Exit Strategy: Ekphrasis through the lens of the abstract and the formless<\/em><\/a>) was a way of going in another direction from my first collection (Full Sight of Her<\/em><\/a>). I was clear from the start that I wanted to be open to new forms, constraints, and feedback \u2014 always in the hope of allowing me to find a new voice and not sound like myself. This striving to get away from what I\u2019d done before is one reason the collection is called Exit Strategy<\/em>. It was about having a book of poems that could be expressive of a new identity, and I achieved that. The critical part helped me become more aware of other poets and where my writing fits in the present landscape.<\/p>\n

Aside from new ways of making a poem in response to modern art (the focus of my thesis), I\u2019m particularly interested in aligning myself with the current trend of exploring hybrid forms, such as the prose poem or the lyric essay. My current project follows in this vein: a memoir that includes prose poems.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Patrick Wright has a poetry collection, Full Sight of Her<\/em><\/a>, published by Eyewear<\/a> and nominated for the John Pollard Prize<\/a>. He has been twice shortlisted for the Bridport Prize<\/a> and teaches English Literature and Creative Writing at the Open University. He has just completed a PhD in Creative Writing on the ekphrasis of modern and contemporary art, supervised by Jane Yeh<\/a> and Siobhan Campbell<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent months, several members of our Creative Writing team have been collaborating with our local bookish friends at Milton Keynes Literary Festival. On Saturday 15th April, lecturer Lania Knight interviewed fellow novelist and life writer Kit de Waal about … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436,121,87,437,1],"tags":[398,448,27,444,19,450,452,451,454,453,440,439,438,449,394,441,445,128,455,447,442,443,446],"class_list":["post-1115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collaborations","category-creative-writing","category-news","category-public-engagement","category-research","tag-bridport-prize","tag-centre-for-new-writing-at-university-of-manchester","tag-creative-writing","tag-daffodils","tag-ekphrasis","tag-exit-strategy-ekphrasis-through-the-lens-of-the-abstract-and-the-formless","tag-eyewear","tag-full-sight-of-her","tag-jane-yeh","tag-john-pollard-prize","tag-kit-de-waal","tag-lania-knight","tag-milton-keynes-literary-festival","tag-mink2023","tag-mklitfest","tag-night-mail","tag-norman-nicholson","tag-phd-in-creative-writing","tag-siobhan-campbell","tag-sylvia-plath","tag-w-h-auden","tag-william-wordsworth","tag-windscale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1115"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1124,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1115\/revisions\/1124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}