The Winner of the 7th Fortnight Poetry Prize is....

M. J. Arlett - pictured - for the poem 'Snowfall In Pennsylvania' (below). Congratulations! She wins £140 on this UK National Poetry Day!

Arlett was born in the UK, grew up in Spain, and now lives in Texas where she is pursuing her PhD. She is an editor at the Plath Poetry Project and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in B O D Y, The Boiler, Lunch Ticket, Poet Lore, Mud Season Review, Rust + Moth, and elsewhere.

The runner up is: 'Orlando’ by Eva Griffin.

The judge, Alexandra Payne wrote:

With the autumn equinox not long behind us, the numerous winter poems among the entries this fortnight really came into their own. None, however, with more delicacy and precision than ‘Snowfall in Pennsylvania’ by M. J. Arlett.

Like an iced-over lake, or a deer that freezes then bolts, this poem exudes a peacefulness with a simultaneous undercurrent of energy. In a time when everything seems to be moving so quickly and with so little meaning, ‘Snowfall in Pennsylvania’ is a pause to inhabit and relish.

The next iteration begins Friday 29 September, runs for 14 days, with a winner announced 7 days after that. The judge this time will be Ms Rosanna Hildyard, our senior editor.

Snowfall in Pennsylvania

Leftover flurries are falling into the hot thick air

climbing up to greet it. The drink

in my hand is fogging and I am snowed in

by happiness, mulling in a tub
of artificial heat. So this is winter:

the weight of water on water, the creaking,

a whole landscape come to pause in the great

depths of what can be accumulated

given enough time. Mother, I'm sorry

I'm so far away, but -my god- if you could see it.
The deer are breaking from the forest, the sky

is a suffocation and I have seen nothing before this.

- poem by M.J. Arlett, copyright the author

reprinted with permission

The shortlist of 14 was:

‘Although the birds would mourn’ by Terence Degnan

‘Baby’ by Tania Hershman

‘Blood Rose’ by Carrie Magness Radna

‘Canzone to Labor in a Heatwave’ by Timothy Duffy

‘Classics of the Mask’ by Lou Heron

‘Orlando’ by Eva Griffin

‘Proteus’ by Sameed Sayeed

‘Quantity Surveying Belfast City’ by Suzanne Magee

‘Snowfall in Pennsylvania’ by M. J. Arlett

‘Still Life with You Gone’ by Ellen Girardeau Kempler

‘The credits are always right by the door’ by Kate Noakes

‘The Heron’ by Gareth Writer-Davies

‘The Matter of the Unconscious’ by Robin Richardson

‘Times & Spaces’ by Stephanie Roberts

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