Great Regulars: However, she [Frances Leviston] now finds herself pitched

into competition with some of contemporary British poetry's leading lights. Edwin Morgan, Leviston's senior by over 60 years, is widely regarded as one of Scotland's greatest living poets, while Sean O'Brien's scooping of the 2007 Forward prize for his latest collection The Drowned Book makes him the only poet to have won the award three times.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: First collection vies with established names for TS Eliot prize

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Guardian First Book Award is unique among book prizes as it is open to all first-time authors and because of the input of readers' groups. The groups are based in seven Waterstone's stores across the country and their views are given voice in discussions on the seven-strong panel of judges by Waterstone's Stuart Broom.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: From Bangladesh to Baghdad: the Guardian book award

~~~~~~~~~~~

Roosting fruit bats flit from trees, loot last light, fly
from thunder's heat-charged columns to the sun-
spilled crimson of the lake's sheen.
[--Graham Mort]

Verbs pursue each other through the lines in a rush of assonance, braiding together a verse already pinned by the central half-rhyme of "trees", "heat" and "sheen"; creating the impression of an integrated universe while simultaneously miming the skittering coherence of the bats' flight.

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: Sex, death and foxes

~~~~~~~~~~~