Penny Boxall is the winner of the biennial Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, which is awarded to Scottish poets aged 30 or under. The result was announced by Edinburgh Makar Christine De Luca at a special event held at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Boxall won with her collection Ship of the Line, which was published by Eyewear in 2014. The judges were the National Poet for Scotland Jackie Kay and former Edinburgh Makar Stewart Conn. With a prize of £20,000, the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award is one of the largest poetry prizes in the UK. The Award is administered by the Scottish Poetry Library.
Boxall was born in 1987 and grew up in Aberdeenshire and Yorkshire. Ship of the Line is published by Eyewear. In 2014 she was commended in the Forward Prize. Her poetry has appeared in the Sunday Times, The Rialto and Mslexia.
Jackie Kay said of Boxall’s poetry: ‘Penny Boxall runs a tight ship. Her poems are beautifully crafted. Reading her is to go on an interesting journey of exploration—stopping at fascinating places along the way. She has a curator’s mind and is always putting one thing beside another in an unexpected way.’
Stewart Conn said: ‘Whether surveying the past through a museum display case, counting hares’ ears or summoning a drowned mutineer, Penny Boxall takes us on a mysterious, often unsettling voyage of discovery. With a clear and humane eye, and love of ambivalence and curiosities, she shares her delight in unexpected emotional nuances.’
The runner-up is Miriam Nash for her collection All the Prayers in the House, which will be published by Bloodaxe in 2017. She was born in Inverness and spent her early years on the west coast island of Erraid. In 2016 she was Writer in Residence at Greenway, Agatha Christie’s holiday home. She receives £2,500.
Stewart Conn said that, ‘Miriam Nash’s poems provide pleasure through the variety and veracity of their subject matter, her insight and freshness of approach, and the warmth she breathes into them.’ Jackie Kay added, ‘Miriam Nash’s work is thematically satisfying, energetic and dynamic. These anarchic poems are the product of an original and febrile mind.’
The other short-listed poets, who each receive £1,000, are: Claire Askew, Sophie Collins, Harry Giles and Stewart Sanderson.
Although only the second Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, the prize is already establishing a reputation for identifying future stars of the Scottish poetry scene. Claire Askew’s first collection This Changes Things was published by Bloodaxe earlier this year and she has appeared on Radio 3’s The Verb. Harry Giles’s debut collection Tonguit (Freight Books) has been nominated for 2016’s Forward Prize for Best First Collection.
Niall Campbell’s victory in the inaugural Edwin Morgan Poetry Award in 2014 demonstrates the life-changing potential of the prize. After winning, his debut collection Moontide went on to win the Saltire Society’s First Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. He is soon to have a first US collection published as part of the prestigious Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets.