Out of a large and competitive field, we are delighted to announce that third-year student Annabelle Fuller has been selected as the winner of this year’s Richard Selig Poetry Prize. The full poem can be read below:
MARS AND VENUS SURPRISED BY VULCAN
The glint and the flat of
a piece of metal hammered tender,
as if it were skin; the spit of filings,
the beating into a shield:
facets and facets of bronze on black.
The sweat, the coming back,
and bluntness and voltage,
the cooling forge like an antler
bleeding its velvet. The push
on the door, the lock taking the key
like a fig does a thumb,
like a fur does a shoulder.

A second prize was also awarded this year to DPhil candidate Winnie Smith for her entry Snakes in the Grass.