Litfest

Earlier this year it was announced that the Lancaster poet and writing teacher Elizabeth Burns won the first Michael Marks Award for Poetry Pamphlets for her collection, The Shortest Days.

The £5,000 prize was set up to highlight how effective pamphlets – defined in this case as a booklet of up to 36 pages – can be in introducing new poetry to readers. The Shortest days may only be 12 pages long, but was praised by the judges for it’s use of  “a limited, light palette, which creates special, lyrical effects, particularly with her use of snow, and the colour white… this is gradually layered across the book, and all the judges felt that the play of light over the whole book was really very moving. It combines skill and direct engagement with the reader.”

“The Shortest Days” is published by Galdragon Press. The initial print run has already sold out, and the pamphlet is currently listed as being out of print, but luckily the Poetry Bookcase has copies still available. Act quick to get your copy.