'Profoundly Scottish' poetry competition reveals international winners
The prize has been running for 21 years
A teacher from Newton Stewart, a nurse from Surrey and an Australian poet writing about the experience of drug withdrawal have been named among the winners at Scotland’s international poetry awards.
The winners of the Wigtown Poetry Prizes, organised by Wigtown Book Festival and held in association with The Scotsman, were unveiled last night, with entries in each of Scotland’s indigenous languages – English, Gaelic and Scots.
The £1,500 Wigtown International Poetry Prize went to Damen O’Brien, a multi-award winning poet from Brisbane, Australia, for The Edge which describes the experience of drug withdrawal.
With 2026 being the centenary of the birth of Galloway’s Alastair Reid, one of Scotland’s greatest 20th century writers and poets, there was a special focus on the award for the best collection.
Maureen Jivani, a nurse from Surrey, was given the Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize for Alma in the Blue, 12 poems which grew out of grief following the sudden death of her teenage daughter.
She said: “It wasn’t cathartic to write these poems. It was hard. Everything came back to me. But as a writer it’s something you have to do. It’s wonderful to be awarded this prize.”
The results were unveiled at a special event at Bladnoch Distillery, at the start of the final weekend of the 10-day Wigtown Book Festival, in Scotland’s National Book Town.
Nick Walker, Wigtown Festival Company trustee, said: “Good poetry can be challenging, entertaining, insightful, funny, sad, difficult, demanding or enlightening – this year’s entries addressed every imaginable subject and evoked every possible emotion.
“The competition is now 21 years old and grows stronger each year. It’s profoundly Scottish and proudly international – crossing borders and boundaries of every kind.
“It takes pride in our languages, renews our culture and nurtures established and emerging poets from Galloway, Scotland and every other part of the world.
“As a committed internationalist I believe Alastair Reid, for so many years a festival trustee and patron, would be pleased to see the representation and reach the prizes have achieved.”
Award-winning poet Ruth Padel, who judged both the international and the pamphlet prizes, added that: “Judging filled me with excitement and awe.
“There were so many original thoughts, insights and perceptions, beautiful and arresting phrases; so much humour, tragedy, pity and fear, so much beautifully achieved formal variation. Picking a shortlist felt like having teeth pulled.”
The winner of the Gaelic Prize is another international poet, Sgàire Uallas (Zachary Wallace), a lawyer in Ontario, Canada, and avid creative writer with an interest in Celtic mythology and folklore.
Commenting on the winning poem, Mac-ghnìomhara, judge Niall O’Gallagher, said: “This is a poem that continues to surprise, that demands to be read again and again.”
Runner-up is Marcas Mac an Tuairneir with his poem Dolaran. A previous winner of both the Gaelic Prize and the International Prize, Marcas is a poet, translator, editor and singer- songwriter based in Edinburgh.
Scots prize judge, Rab Wilson chose as winner The Seaman and Saint Brendan by William Hershaw from Fife.
The Fresh Voice Award, for unpublished poets in Dumfries and Galloway, went to Newton Stewart teacher, Fiona Lindsay, who won the award with her collection Becoming. Her prize is a year’s writing mentorship funded by Wigtown Festival Company and a writing retreat courtesy of Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre.
The winning poems and the full shortlist can be seen at www.wigtownpoetryprize.com.
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