Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2012

The 3 Troubadour prizewinners who I've met - Vanessa Gebbie, Judy Brown and Paul Stephenson - conveniently stood together in the recent Prize Night photograph. I went on weekend poetry workshops in Suffolk with Judy and Paul (he won 2nd prize). They've both lived abroad and have other interests. Judy's Loudness was shortlisted for the Forward and Aldebugh prizes, and Paul's in many mags (and has been anthologised in Adventures in form). He's often more experimental than the other two. A book is surely in the offing (or am I being old-fashioned?).

Vanessa Gebbie won the £2,500 first prize. Unexpected perhaps, because she's hardly published a poem, but she's been shortlisted twice in the Bridport and if you read her short-story collections and novel (The Coward's Tale) my guess is that your surprize will disappear. Congratulations to all of them.