The Poetry Society

Kim Moore is the winner of the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize 2010, judged this year by Fred D'Aguiar

Kim Moore is the winner of the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize 2010. The award is made annually to the best poem published in Poetry Review by a poet who has yet to publish his/her first collection. Kim's poem 'Tuesday At Wetherspoons’, published in the Spring 2011 issue of Poetry Review, was chosen by Fred D'Aguiar.

Fred D'Aguiar comments, " 'Tuesday At Wetherspoons’ places a woman novice with a critical eye in the middle of her apprenticeship to male oppression, except that the males are bundling and helpless and the powerful women limit themselves to serving these unworthy men in a cycle resembling one of the lower rings of Dante’s Hell. Her politics of discovery is tempered by a poetics of recovery; while the former probes the intricacies of gender identity, the latter eases the wounds of awareness. A fine achievement. A deserving winner.”     

Other poems commended by the judge include: 'To My Adulterous Husband' by Nadia Al Fazil-Kareem; 'In The Steam Room' by Liz Berry; 'Jonah's Prayer' by Aviva Dautch; 'Wittgenstein's Football Tactics' by Tim Hopkins; 'The Problem of Identity' by Dominic McLoughlin; 'Phineas Survives' by James Midgley; 'The Wolf' also by Kim Moore; 'Threadneedle Street' by Scott Kristoffer Ripley; and 'Starlings' by Sam Willetts.

The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize was established in memory of Geoffrey Dearmer, who at 103 was the Society’s oldest member. It is awarded, through the generosity of the Dearmer family, to honour this noted World War One poet. Poetry Review is extremely grateful to the Dearmer family.

By establishing an endowment fund, the Dearmer family has enabled the Poetry Society to award an annual prize worth £400 to the Poetry Review "new poet of the year". Former editor Peter Forbes describes the impact of this award: "It is hard work for a young poet to get established, it takes a long, long time. When somebody is named as the poet of the year people can't help but notice."

Our thanks go to our 2010 judge Fred D'Aguiar, whose sixth poetry collection, Continental Shelf (Carcanet, 2009) was a PBS Choice. He teaches at Virginia Tech USA.