The votes for Best Poem 2022 on The Milk House are in. With an extremely strong shortlist for the award, it is not surprising that the results were close. Judge Nicki Griffin has determined the Judge’s Choice for best poem, and you, the audience of The Milk House, has declared The Reader’s Choice.
Any poem on the shortlist of ten, as well as many that Nicki Griffin didn’t include on the list, would have been entirely worthy of either honor. The Milk House would like to sincerely thank the shortlisted authors who went through the extra hassle of recording their poetry, as well as to all contributors to The Milk House who have helped the project continually showcase exceptionally strong work.
If you haven’t watched the videos of the shortlisted poems yet, it will be time well spent. You can find them here.
And so, without further ado, here are your 2022 Judge’s Choice and Reader’s choice winners, each of whom will receive a 50 euro/dollar gift certificate from Kennys Bookshop.
Judge’s Choice Best Poem 2022
Jonathan Humble is a retired deputy head teacher living in Cumbria. His poems have appeared in a number of anthologies and other publications online and in print including Curlew Calling (Numenius Press), Diversifly (Fair Acre Press), This Place I Know (Handstand Press), Greenfields (Maytree Press) and Through The Locking Glass (Inspired By Lakeland). A collection of his light poetry (My Camel’s Name Is Brian) was published in 2015 by TMB Books. A second short collection of his work (Fledge) was published by Maytree Press in the summer of 2020. He has had poems for children shortlisted and highly commended in the Caterpillar Poetry Prize and York Mix Poetry Competitions. He writes regularly for the Yorkshire Times, reviewing poetry collections and publishing articles on a range of subjects. He has delivered poetry workshops for the Wordsworth Trust and also appeared as the Poet in a Fridge for the Radio Cumbria Poetry Takeaway during the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival at Tullie House in Carlisle. His pieces can be found here and here.
Readers’ Choice Best Poem 2022
Ger Duffy lives in Co Waterford, Ireland and works as a teacher. Her poems have been published in Slow Dancer Press (UK), The Womens’ Press (UK), Voxgalvia, Pendemic, In the Midst Anthology (US), The Waxed Lemon, Cathal Bui Selected Anthology, Poetry X Hunger eBook (US), Drawn to the Light Press, Local Wonders Anthology and The Ekphrastic Review (US). She is a recipient of a Poetry Mentoring Award from the Munster Literature Centre. In 2021, she was a Pushcart nominee. Her piece can be found here.
Congratulations to not only Jonathan and Ger, but to all the talented writers who have appeared on The Milk House in 2022. Here’s to looking forward to an exciting 2023.