Ah, I do so love our Cult Challenges and – like the Baker’s Dozen Competitions – our Wee Pamphlet Challenge always seems to get people to think a little different and pull together short collections that say something in a fresher way (if that makes sense?)
Judging them is tricky though, as compared to a full-sized collection or larger pamphlet – they tend to be distilled and more concentrated and often quite tricky to pull off as a coherent group when, quite literally, every poem has to be strong or it all ends-up in tatters.
But judge them I must, and I am excited to say that the winner this time put together something quite beautiful that carries perfectly from start to end.
I am totally sure that when we publish it next year, it will be extremely well received, and then stay with people for a long time to come.
So (finally getting to the point) very many congratulations to our winner:
HELEN OPENSHAW
and many thanks to everybody else that made life so difficult for me this week.