Wigtown Poetry Prizes graphic.

Wigtown Poetry Prizes Shortlist Revealed

19 August 2024

  • Scotland’s three language poetry awards attract more than 500 entries
  • Prizes to be awarded at a special event during the Wigtown Book Festival

The shortlist has been unveiled for the 2024 Wigtown Poetry Prizes – which celebrate work in the nation’s three indigenous languages. This year there have been 530 entries in English, Scots and Scottish Gaelic, submitted from all round the world. The prizes date back to 2005 and have become recognised as Scotland’s international poetry awards.

Nicholas Walker, Wigtown Poetry Prize Group Chair, said:

“Poetry enriches our lives and cultures. The Wigtown Poetry Prizes are particularly special because they are rooted in the heritage of Scotland but aim to nurture and encourage poets from every part of the world, in Scotland’s three different languages.

“I’m glad to see that enthusiasm for them is thriving, and even growing, with an increase in entries compared to last year.

 “The judges have faced some real challenges narrowing down to shortlists of commended poems, and I am looking forward to hearing their comments in more detail when they announce the winners at the 2024 Wigtown Book Festival.”

This year’s judges include the multiple award-winning Gerda Stevenson, one of Scotland’s most creative voices.

After drawing up her shortlists she said: 

“Being invited to judge the Wigtown International Poetry Prize and the Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize was an honour. 

“I have found it particularly interesting to discover what poets are writing about in these very dark times. 

“The challenges were different. Reading through a hundred pamphlets, well over a thousand poems, was a complex task, examining the way in which the poems in each pamphlet linked thematically. 

“The International Prize was less arduous in this respect, but just as fascinating to consider the level of craft employed in each single poem submitted."

Accomplished poet Liz Niven, who is judging the Fresh Voice Award (designed to nurture poets in or from Dumfries and Galloway), said:

 “I was hoping to find poetry to engage with, richness of subject matter and imagery, alongside attention to structure. I found all this and more from the entrants to the Fresh Voice Award.”


The 2024 Wigtown Poetry Prizes shortlistsWigtown International Prize

  • Wandering Star, Jane Frank
  • Cracked, Magi Gibson
  • The Obituary of Megan Boyd, Louise Greig
  • Homosexual, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir
  • Matter, Kristen Mears
  • Inversion Layers, Jilly O’Brien

Wigtown Gaelic Prize (Supported by The Gaelic Books Council)

  • Bana-bhuidsich Allt a’ Mhuilinn, Ceitidh Campbell
  • Fianais, Rònaigh an Taibh, Rody Gorman
  • Pràiseach, Marcas Mac an Tuairneir
  • Immram, Taylor Strickland
  • Crìoch cànain, Mona Claudia Wagner

Wigtown Scots Prize (Supported by Saltire Society)

  • Loch Awe, Lesley Benzie
  • A Black Ex-Miner Caas Doon the Miners' Raws, Robert Duncan
  • Sit In Yir Ain Licht, Rob McClure
  • Karneval, Shane Strachan
  • Whaun She is Done, Lynn Valentine

Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize (The prize is in memory of one of Scotland’s foremost literary talents)

  • I Go To The Devil, Sarah Gibbons
  • wOmen’s wOrk, Jennifer Harrison
  1. The Broken Smashed Rubble of Everything I Owned, Wes Lee

Dumfries & Galloway Fresh Voice Award

  • Wednesday Afternoons: Agnew Park, Jane Fuller
  • In Between Places, Suzannah Goss
  1. Watery Limits, Diane Schofield

The prizes will be awarded at a special event at Wigtown Book Festival on Friday, 4 October 2024.Wigtown Festival Company is grateful for the continuing support for the Wigtown Poetry Prizes from the Gaelic Books Council / Comhairle nan Leabhraichean, Saltire Society, StAnza, Moniack Mhor and Scottish Poetry Library.

  1. Full details at www.wigtownpoetryprize.com


About the Wigtown Poetry Prizes

Founded in 2005 and refreshed and rebranded in 2019, Wigtown Poetry Prizes welcome entries from poets wherever they may live. Separate categories celebrate the best of Scottish Gaelic and Scots language poetry, a special category acknowledges a rising talent in Dumfries & Galloway, and a pamphlet prize is named in memory of Alastair Reid - local poet and one of Scotland's foremost literary figures.


About The Gaelic Books Council

Comhairle nan Leabhraichean (The Gaelic Books Council) is the lead organisation with responsibility for supporting Scottish Gaelic authors and publishers, and for raising the profile and reach of Scottish Gaelic books in Scotland and internationally. Established in 1968, Comhairle nan Leabhraichean is a registered charity and receives support from Creative Scotland and from Bòrd na Gàidhlig.

About The Saltire Society

The Saltire Society seeks to encourage everything that might improve the quality of life in Scotland. It works to preserve all that is best in Scottish traditions and to encourage new developments which can strengthen and enrich the country’s cultural life. It acts as a catalyst, celebrant and commentator through an annual programme of awards, lectures, debates and projects. Founded in 1936 is a non-political independent charity with membership branches throughout Scotland.

About StAnza

StAnza's mission is to celebrate poetry, to bring poetry to audiences and to enable encounters with poetry. The organisation works all year round to deliver poetry events and projects in Scotland and beyond. Its main focus is the annual festival in St Andrews each spring and it is recognised as one of the leading poetry festivals in the UK and Europe. StAnza also actively promotes readings in foreign or minority languages and has featured poets reading in many of the national languages of Europe, as well as in regional languages and dialects. We regularly include Gaelic and Scots language poets.

For media information and interview requests contact Matthew Shelley on 07786 704299 or Matthew@ScottishFestivalsPR.Org

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Portrait of Gerda Stevenson
Nick Walker, Wigtown Poetry Prize Group Chair.