YUI
At Yui, travellers had a choice: risk drowning at sea or death by bandits
     on Satta Pass. In the garden this morning kill-fish lap
     their bowl indifferent to crows balancing on the rim.
     Ack-ack-ack-ack, crows laugh as they watch fish loop-the-loop.

Kikuyo shivers thinking of travellers peaky as an August moon,
     too close to the edge, torn between safety and danger.
     Trees fall away from the blue-green waters of Suruga,
     four junks head for the point of vanishing.

A grey thought clings to the ledge. He has forgotten. I am not jealous,
     though I know he’s not alone, Kikuyo thinks. She paints
     her bottom lip and chooses the high road. Leaves
     at once as clouds unravel the day.

Nancy Gaffield
Tokaido Road
(CB Editions 2011)

Nancy Gaffield’s Tokaido Road has won this year’s Aldeburgh First Collection Prize 2011. The news was announced by The Poetry Trust’s Director, Naomi Jaffa at the start of the 23rd Aldeburgh Poetry Festival on Friday 4 November.
Many congratulations to Nancy – and also to her publisher, Charles Boyle of CB Editions.
Read a poem from Tokaido Road.

In addition to the cash award (£1,000), the Aldeburgh prize carries two incalculable benefits for the winner. Nancy Gaffield will receive a paid invitation to read at next year’s 24th Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, plus a unique week’s paid protected writing time on the inspirational East Suffolk coast. No other poetry prize makes such an investment in new talent.

A year ago, Nancy was still waiting to hear if her book would be published and she was simply astonished at the news of her win:

“For me, Tokaido Road was a book that just had to be written: how it would be received was a complete unknown. I never imagined that it would achieve such recognition. Aldeburgh attracts support from so many distinguished poets and commands so much respect, that I could not have wished for a better reception for my work.”

The book (which was also shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection) was described by Robert Seatter, one of this year’s three judges, as “a remarkable piece of subtle, sustained and surprising writing. Taking as its starting point a set of period Japanese prints, Nancy reinvents these images as a revelatory journey which feels both fresh and timeless. It’s as if every word must have been written before, but comes new off the page.”

“The poems are strong in atmosphere and realisation, fluid, involving, at home with the uncertain, with human grief, memory, longing, history”, according to fellow judge Penelope Shuttle. “Here, then, is poetry as time machine, providing what Elizabeth Bishop required of poetry – ‘mystery, accuracy, and spontaneity’.”

Charles Boyle, Founding Editor of CB Editions said:
“However good, first collections from small presses are rarely noticed by more than a handful of dedicated readers. Even to be on the shortlist for the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize makes a big difference: attention is focused, and the book begins to gain the readership it deserves. The prize deserves the continuing support of everyone – the Arts Council included – interested in widening the audience for new poetry.”

The judges for the 2011 Aldeburgh First Collection Prize were Michael Laskey (Chair), Robert Seatter and Penelope Shuttle. Their 2011 Shortlist comprised:
  Rachael Boast     Sidereal (Picador)
  Tom Duddy          The Hiding Place (Arlen House)
  Nancy Gaffield     Tokaido Road (CB Editions)
  Ed Reiss              Your Sort (Smith Doorstop)
  Jacqueline Saphra The Kitchen of Lovely Contraptions
    (Flipped Eye Publishing)

The Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, established in 1989, was the first UK award designed to recognise and benefit a poet at first book stage. Supported from 2003 until 2008 by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation (as the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize), it is one of the UK’s oldest and most influential prizes for contemporary poetry. Previous winners include Tiffany Atkinson, Colette Bryce, Christian Campbell, Nick Laird, Esther Morgan, Robin Robertson, Henry Shukman and Susan Wicks.

2011 Nancy Gaffield – Tokaido Road (CB editions)
2010 Christian Campbell – Running the Dusk (Peepal Tree)
2009 J.O. Morgan – Natural Mechanical (CB editions)
2008 Ciaran Berry – The Sphere of Birds (The Gallery Press)
2007 Tiffany Atkinson – Kink and Particle (Seren)
2006 Roger Moulson – Waiting for the Night Rowers
                                                                      (Enitharmon)
2005 Nick Laird – To A Fault (Faber)
2004 Julia Casterton – The Doves of Finisterre (The Rialto)
2003 Martha Kapos – My Night in Cupid’s Palace (Enitharmon)
2003 Helena Nelson – Starlight on Water (The Rialto)
2003 Matthew Welton – The Book of Matthew (Carcanet)
2002 Henry Shukman – In Doctor No’s Garden (Cape)
2001 Esther Morgan – Beyond Calling Distance (Bloodaxe)
2000 Colette Bryce – The Heel of Bernadette (Picador)
1999 Cliff Yates – Henry’s Clock (Smith/Doorstop)
1998 Tamar Yoseloff – Sweetheart (Slow Dancer Press)
1997 Robin Robertson – A Painted Field (Picador)
1996 Glyn Wright – Could Have Been Funny (Spike)
1995 Gwyneth Lewis – Parables & Faxes (Bloodaxe)
1994 Sue Stewart – Inventing the Fishes (Anvil)
1993 no prize awarded
1992 Susan Wicks – Singing Underwater (Faber)
1991 Mark Roper – The Hen Ark (Peterloo)
1990 Donald Atkinson – A Sleep of Drowned Fathers (Peterloo)
1989 John Lucas – Studying Grosz on the Bus (Peterloo)

How to enter & eligibility

Any first collection of at least 40 pages published in the UK and Republic of Ireland between 1 August 2011 and 31 July 2012 is eligible. Submissions can be from publishers or individual poets.

Three bound or proof copies with a note of the date of publication must be received by Monday 23 July 2012. All entries to:

Aldeburgh First Collection Prize
The Cut, 9 New Cut
Halesworth
Suffolk
IP19 8BY

History

The Aldeburgh First Collection Prize was launched in 1989 to coincide with the first Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and is the oldest prize of its kind in the UK. The winner has always received both a cash prize and an invitation to read at the subsequent Festival.

Between 2003 and 2008, the award was renamed the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and its profile and value substantially increased, thanks to generous six-year investment from the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. Instead of an anonymous panel, two established poets are appointed each year as judges, together with Michael Laskey as Chair. Recent judges have included Gillian Allnutt, Helen Dunmore, Vicki Feaver, Jamie McKendrick, Penelope Shuttle and Christopher Reid.

The shortlist

Up to five titles are shortlisted in October.

The Prize

The winner receives a cash prize, a week of paid ‘protected’ writing time on the East Suffolk coast plus a fee-paying invitation to read at the following Aldeburgh Poetry Festival (a unique opportunity to reach Britain’s largest and most appreciative poetry audience)

Details for the 2012 Aldeburgh First Collection Prize will be announced in the Spring of 2012. Check this page for futher information or subscribe to our newsletter.

The Aldeburgh First Collection Prize was launched in 1989 to coincide with the first Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and remains the oldest prize of its kind in the UK. The winner receives both a cash prize and an invitation to read at the subsequent Festival in addition to a paid weeks writing time on the Suffolk coast. The prize is awarded - in the opinion of the judges - to the best first collection of poetry published in printed book form in the UK and Republic of Ireland in the preceding year.

In 2010 the Prize was awarded to young Caribbean poet Christian Campbell for Running the Dusk (Peepal Tree Press).

Judge Jo Shapcott praised the collection as a “bravura performance” describing Campbell’s poems as “energetic, fluid and musical and full of loss, hope and imagination. “The book, which was also shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, was described by fellow judge Neil Rollinson as “the clear stand out among all the volumes I read.”

Campbell responded to news of his win with:
Let’s just say that I’m ‘feeling good’ in the Nina Simone way! I’m honoured to be a part of a moment of great energy and transformation in contemporary poetry in the UK. It’s very, very difficult for any young poet, and for any Caribbean poet, to get this level of recognition.

Previous winners of the prize include Tiffany Atkinson, Colette Bryce, Nick Laird, Esther Morgan, Robin Robertson, Henry Shukman and Susan Wicks.