Coffee House Poetry

2009 Troubadour International Poetry Prize

Some 2009 prizewinners at Troubadour Prize Night (l to r): Pam Zinnemann-Hope, Tom Lowenstein (2nd), Martin Haslam, Sandra Greaves, David Gilbert (Joint 3rd), Pat Borthwick, Tinker Mather, Robert Saxton, Sue Rose (1st), Barry Taylor, Maura Dooley & Jamie McKendrick (judges), Miriam Obrey & Michael McKimm.

The following prizewinning poems were chosen by Troubadour Poetry Prize 2009 judges, Maura Dooley and Jamie McKendrick, who read along with the prizewinning poets at our annual prizegiving event at the Troubadour on Monday 30th November 2009:

• First Prize, £1000: Mahler 9, Sue Rose
• Second Prize, £500: Eating Soup by the River, Tom Lowenstein
• Joint Third Prize, £125: Weeding My Sister, Carlotta Miller Johnston
• Joint Third Prize, £125: Liberian Pygmy Hippopotamus, David Gilbert

plus, with prizes of £20 each:

• Mutton Fat Jade, Edward Ragg
• Captains and the Kings, James Dufficy
• At Harefield Manor, Christopher North
• The Allegheny Hackle, Martin Haslam
• Three Deer, Michael McKimm
• The Atomic Swerve, Barry Taylor
• Valise, Tinker Mather
• In Fen Light, Pat Borthwick
• Sea Walker, Robert Saxton
• Night Shift at the Trifle Factory, Clare Kirwan
• The Missing, Kim Moore
• Prospect, Jane Draycott
• The Price of Chocolate, Noel Williams
• Property, Nina Boyd
• This is a Confessional Poem, Kathryn Maris
• The Musicologist and The Birdwatcher, Pam Zinneman-Hope
• North, Sandra Greaves
• Fallujah Birthdays, David Atkinson
• All Souls Day 2008, Miriam Obrey

see poems for 2009, 2008 and 2007 prizewinning poems…

Troubadour Poetry Prize 2009: Judges

Maura Dooley

…was born in Truro, grew up in Bristol, and after working for some years in Yorkshire now lives in London. She is a freelance writer and lectures at Goldsmiths’ College. She edited Making for Planet Alice: New Women Poets (1997) and The Honey Gatherers: A Book of Love Poems (2002) for Bloodaxe, and How Novelists Work (2000) for Seren. Life Under Water (Bloodaxe Books, 2008) is her first new collection since Sound Barrier: Poems 1982-2002 (Bloodaxe Books, 2002), which drew on collections including Explaining Magnetism (1991) and Kissing a Bone (1996), both Poetry Book Society Recommendations. Life Under Water was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2008.

Jamie McKendrick

…one of the Poetry Society’s ‘New Generation’ poets, was born in Liverpool in 1955, studied at Nottingham University, has taught at Salerno University and now lives in Oxford. He is author of five collections of poetry: The Sirocco Room (1991); The Kiosk on the Brink (1993); The Marble Fly (1997), winner of the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year) and a Poetry Book Society Choice; Ink Stone (2003); and Crocodiles and Obelisks (2007), shortlisted for the 2008 Forward (Best Poetry Collection) Prize. His selected poems have been published in Holland and Italy and he edited the Faber Book of 20th-century Italian Poems (2004).

Both judges read all poems submitted.