[vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_column_text]We’re delighted to announce that the winner of the first ever Candlestick Press/Cloud Appreciation Society poetry competition is Lesley Saunders with her poem ‘Hazy, Massed, Dappled.’ Second prize is awarded to Sarah Westcott for her poem ‘Flight.’ Both will feature in Candlestick’s forthcoming pamphlet Ten Poems about Clouds to be published in the summer.

Eight poets were highly commended and their poems will appear on the Candlestick and CAS websites.

Judge Katharine Towers is assistant editor at Candlestick Press and Poet-in-Residence at CAS. She says:

“While judging the competition I read over 600 poems that flew in from all over the world. I was struck by the thrilling variety in the responses. The two winning poems are strikingly different, but each does what Emily Dickinson says a poem should do and ‘tells it slant.’ All ten successful poems make that all-important imaginative leap into the beguiling or the unexpected – and not one of them settles for simply describing a cloud!”

First Prize

‘Hazy, Massed, Dappled’ by Lesley Saunders

Second Prize

‘Flight’ by Sarah Westcott

Highly Commended

‘Nudging Clouds’ by Shirley Anne Cook

‘Clouding Over’ by Jonathan Davidson

‘Cloud Souls’ by Louise Greig

‘8.04pm’ by Miriam Calleja

‘Cloud Break’ by Michael Brown

‘The Cloud Collector’ by Christopher James

‘Cloud Content’ by Caroline Hammond

‘Musings on board spacecraft Oasis 1’ by Jeanette Burton[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]