[Clive Watkins]

The winner of the 2009 Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize is Matthew Ladd for his collection The Book of Emblems. The final judge was Rosanna Warren.

The launch will be held at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, 19 October 2010, in The Elizabethan Theatre, Folger Shakespeare Library, 201 East Capitol Street SE, Washington DC 20005. It will be introduced by Philip Hoy, Managing Editor of The Waywiser Press, which offers the prize. Tickets cost $15 and can be booked online at the Folger Library website here.

Further information can be found at Waywiser’s site here. This is our Events page. You will need to scroll down past the first event, a forthcoming reading in London. (If you scroll down further, you will also find a photo of “yours truly”, reading with Chris Preddle, a very fine British poet whose collection, Cattle Console Him, Waywiser published in July.)

The 2010 competition has already opened. The closing date is 1st December 2010. Further details can be found here.

Clive Watkins

[Julie Steiner]

I had to laugh, Clive--the guy in the painting behind you does not appear to be properly appreciating your reading.

Congrats on your new book! I'll be buying a copy and rooting around the other Waywiser stuff.

[Oops, I just saw that this is actually your old book, of which I wasn't aware. Well, I'm about seven years overdue to buy it, aren't I?]

[Andrew Frisardi]

I'm confused. The 2009 prize is decided upon and awarded in 2010? I recall seeing this poet's work at the Waywiser site--but last year, it seems to me. I liked the poems quite a bit so it was easy to recall them when I looked at the site again.
Is this announcement new? Or is just déjà vu all over again?

[Maryann Corbett]

Andrew, I think you might have seen the poems earlier this year when the 2009 prize was first announced. I recall that I put something on Accomplished about Aaron Poochigian's place in the finalists and semifinalists list.

It does look as though the year attached to each winner is the year when manuscripts are submitted, rather than the year when the prize is awarded and the book published.

The launch sounds like a great event; I'm plotting and planning....

[Clive Watkins]

No Andrew, it’s not déja vu, let alone déja vu all over again! Maryann is right. As in the past, the competition is dated from the year of the submission-deadline. I see how my opening sentence is misleading. Thanks for pointing it out. I have amended the announcement: the notice concerning the October reading in the Folger relates to the 2009 competition.

As I also say, the 2010 competition is now open. The deadline for submissions is 1st December this year. The winner will be announced next year.

Julie, I see what you mean about the chap in the painting. Hm... Fortunately he did not seem typical of the rest of the audience! And, yes, Jigsaw dates from 2003 – such a long time ago...

Thanks to all.

Clive

[Maryann Corbett]

Bumping this because it's a little over a month away, and I'm trying really hard to arrange to be there, working around a needed visit to my mother. I'd love to see any of you who are near enough to attend.

I can never get to West Chester, so I try to grab these opportunities.