Keats-Shelley
Memorial Association Patron HRH The Prince of Wales
Registered Charity No: 212692
For details of the 2012 Prize see Noticeboard Page
Initially the brain-child of Caroline Wu and the late Quentin Crewe, The Keats-Shelley Prize was inaugurated in 1998 to reward excellence in writing on Romantic themes. The underlying purpose of the Prize was and remains to encourage people of all ages, but particularly the young, to respond personally to the emotions aroused in them by the work of the Romantics through rising to the challenge of writing their own poem or essay. Entries are invited annually in two categories: poems, on a theme chosen by the judges, and essays on any aspect of the work or life of Keats or Shelley. Although it is a competition open to all, it is promoted strongly to the universities. It is launched at the beginning of each calendar year.
The judges' panel consists of two practising poets, Matthew Sweeney and John Hartley Williams, and of two Romantic scholars who assess the essays. A distinguished literary figure with an interest in the Romantics is chosen as Prize Chairman each year. There are £3,000 of prizes, awarded in each category to a winner and a runner-up. The winners have the additional bonus of being published in the Keats-Shelley Review.
An Awards Ceremony takes place each year in London, to which all Friends and Competition entrants are invited. Former Prize Chairmen have included the poets and biographers Andrew Motion, Claire Tomalin, Tom Paulin, Grevel Lindop, Miranda Seymour, the late Lord Gilmour, James Fenton, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Keates, A.N.Wilson, Ann Wroe, Janet Todd, Jack Mapanje, and Dame Penelope Lively CBE.
The Prize was sponsored for its first four years by The Folio Society, and thereafter by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the John S.Cohen Foundation. It has more recently been sponsored by Barclays Wealth, The Department of English, University of St Andrews, The Cowley Foundation, and The Liberal magazine.
To read winning poem entries of previous years, click on the links
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Rukmini Maria Callimachi
for poem 'The Anatomy of Wildflowers' [ view ]
Sarah Wotton
for essay on 'Keats in Early Pre-Raphaelite Art'
published in Review No. 12.
1999
Cate Parish
for poem 'Ode to Someone in the Pool' [ view ]
James Burton
for essay on 'Keats and Coldness'
published in Review No. 13.
2000
Antony Nichols
for poem 'Graveyard Shift' [ view ]
Helena Nelson
for essay 'Wherefore all this Wormy Circumstance'
published in Review No. 14.
2001
Robert Saxton
for poem 'The Nightingale Broadcasts' [ view ]
Toby Venables
for essay 'The Lost Traveller'
published in Review No. 15.
2002
Jane Draycott
for poem 'The Night Tree' [ view ]
Joe Francis
for essay 'Doubting the Mountain:
an Approach to Mont Blanc'
published in Review No. 16.
2003
Leonie Rushforth
for poem 'Bearings' [ view ]
Stephen Burley
for essay 'Shelley, the United Irishman and the Illuminati’
published in Review No. 17.
2004
Isobel Lusted
for poem ‘Soul with White Wings’ [ view ]
Porscha Fermanis
for essay ‘Stadial Theory, Robertson’s History of America, and Hyperion’
published in Review No 18.
2005
Edmund Cusick
for poem ‘Speaking in Tongues ’ [ view ]
David Taylor
for essay ‘Prometheus Unbound'
published in Review No 19.
2006
Martin McRitchie
for poem 'The Experiment' [ view ]
Alison Pearce
for essay “Magnificent Mutilations'
published in Review No 20.
2007
Richard Marggraf Turley
For poem “Elisions” [ view ]
Adam Gyngell
for essay “Ye Elemental Genii”
published in Review No 21.
2008
John Gohorry
for poem “Lost” [ view ]
Susan Miller
for essay “Hellenic and Scientific Influences in B.P. Shelley’s Medusa”
published in Review No 22.
2009
DH Maitreyabandhu
for poem “The Small Boy and the Mouse”
[ view ]
Jillian Hess
for essay “This living Hand: Commonplacing Keats”
published in Review No 23.
2010
Simon Armitage
for poem “The Present” [ view ]
Andrew Lacey
for essay “Wings of Poesy: Keats's Birds”
published in Review No 24.
2011
Pat Borthwick
for poem "Lord Leighton Brings Arabia to Holland Park" [ view ]
Priyanka Soni
for essay "Natura Naturata: Shelley's Philosophy of the Mind in Creation"
published in Review No 25
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Winners and their entries 2012
The winning poem was by
Nick MacKinnon
“Terrier in Rape”
The winning essay was by
Ruth Scobie
“Mary Shelley’s Monstrous Explorers: James Cook, James King, and a sledge in Kamchatka ”
To be published in the spring issue of
Keats-Shelley Review 2013, No 26.
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Children's Poetry Prize Italy
This is one of the key 'outreach' projects for school children run from the Keats-Shelley Memorial House, which receives visits from Italian school groups throughout the scholastic year. Established in 1991, it takes place each year in spring and summer. It invites entries through the schools from children to write poems either in English or Italian on different subjects according to their age group, from five to eighteen. Many hundreds of entries are received each year from all over Italy, on themes such as Revolution, Ghosts, Peace, Dreaming, Conflict. In June a prize-giving ceremony is given in Rome attended by the young winners and their families, usually with a well-known poet from the UK – in the past these have included Matthew Sweeney, Brian Patten, Vicki Feaver – presenting the prizes and giving a personal reading. Proceedings are rounded off at a party at McDonalds in Piazza di Spagna.
For more information contact the House in Rome
telephone 39/6/678 4235
fax 39/6/678 4167
info@keats-shelley-house.org
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Bursaries, established in memory of Sheila Birkenhead, a former Chairman of KSMA and author of Illustrious Friends and Against Oblivion, are awarded to support graduate students presenting academic papers at conferences of Romantic studies in the UK.
Candidates must be postgraduate students studying full-time for a second degree in English Literature at any UK university, and should be full-time UK residents.
Awards will be made on a first-come, first-served basis. Applications, which may be submitted at any time, will include a CV (including the names of two referees), an abstract of the paper to be read, details of the conference organisers, with full details of the conference including cost. They should be sent to Angus Graham-Campbell – marked “Bursary Awards”, 12 High Street, Eton, Windsor, Berks SL4 6AS.
Last year two awards were made: to Susan Miller, £150, for a paper given to Edwards and Scotland Yale/Glasgow conference at the University of Glasgow on March 30-31, on Keats and Jonathan Edwards and their concept of beauty; and to Nicola Healey of St Andrews University for a paper given to the Wordsworth Summer conference, on Dorothy Wordsworth.
Since one award has been made to Terence Shih to read a paper on Frankenstein at the British Society for 18th Century studies 40th Annual Conference at St Hugh's College Oxford in Jan 2011.
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