If you’re a poet focused on environmental issues, the Ginkgo Prize is worth investigating.
Submissions are not free (the first poem is is £7), but the awards are significant and the judges are Homero Aridjis and Jen Hadfield. The prize is in its second year and is funded by the Edward Goldsmith Foundation.
The competition encourages poets writing in English from all backgrounds and abilities to interrogate and explore our built and natural environments, to challenge the global climate crisis and celebrate ecological beauty by lending creative space to the writing of poetry. The competition closes on 15 September 2019 and the winners will be announced at a high-profile award ceremony on 22 November at Swedenborg House in Bloomsbury Square, London. The winning poems will be published in an e-book and a limited-edition eco-friendly pamphlet.
John is co-author, with Midge Raymond, of the eco-mystery Devils Island, forthcoming in 2024. He is also author of the novels The Tourist Trail and Where Oceans Hide Their Dead. Co-founder of Ashland Creek Press and editor of Writing for Animals (also now a writing program).
