The Shortlist!

We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2022 MONO. Poetry Prize judged this year by Joelle Taylor, winner of the 2021 TS Eliot Prize. As a much sought-after poet and performer with a full schedule and little time on their hands, we were thrilled when Joelle offered to give up some of that time to judge the MONO. Poetry Prize.

This year's competition has truly been a global contest, bringing together many hundreds of poets from every corner of the world, from big names to first timers and attracting an incredibly diverse audience. We are immensely grateful to each and every poet who entered the competition; know that your participation is valued and is helping to further poetry and the creative arts, even if on a small scale. In a world that often feels like it is falling apart, it is the poets, writers, artists, dancers and musicians that ground us and are the lifeblood of our communities; the place we can truly connect with ourselves and others.

The judging process/admin has been a bigger job than we anticipated and taken a wee bit longer to process than planned, but we have tried our best to keep entrants informed along the way. Winning entries will therefore now appear in the April 2023 edition of the journal, rather than October 2022.

We think the wait has been absolutely worth it. Here's what Joelle had to say about the judging process:

'It was such a strong swatch of poems to sift through, some really eclectic and experimental works, and high craft shown in their composition. All judging is subjective, but these are the ones that struck me most in terms of pushing language, whilst retaining heart.'

Without further ado, we give you the top six poems...

• Patrick Preston - The Fuck Tree

• Maiya Calise Dambawinna - Five Sonnets (Confessions for Stomach Lining)

• Stacey Forbes - Swerve

• Stacey Forbes - Divining the Pipes

• Catherine Hou - you're bleeding because you don't floss

• Nnadi Samuel - An Artillery of Glossary Terms

We will be informing the winners by email this weekend and announcing/publishing the winning poems on Monday via the blog. Watch this space and your inbox!

Peace and Light,

Kayleigh & Tina