Poetry Prize 2025: RESULTS
May 15th, 2025 | Uncategorized | Comments Off on Poetry Prize 2025: RESULTS
Here are the winners of the Fish Poetry Prize 2025, selected by Billy Collins, to be published in the Fish Anthology 2025.
Below you will find short biographies of the winners and the Long and Short Lists.
From all of us at Fish we congratulate the poets whose poems made it here. There were 1,886 entries and competition was very tough.

Billy Collins.
The Fish Anthology will be launched as part of the West Cork Literary Festival, (Marino Church, Bantry, West Cork Wednesday 16th July – 18.30.) All are welcome!
FIRST PRIZE:
The Harvesters by Michael Lavers (Read Winning Poem)
Another of Michael Lavers’s poem, On Cabbages, is an honorary mention.
SECOND PRIZE:
Prayer at the Cove by Wes Lee
THIRD PRIZE:
A zuihitsu on how everything is about my estranged father by Sue Burge
HONORARY MENTIONS (In no particular order):
On Meeting Shakespeare in the Supermarket by Kate Bailey
Aubade to my Phlebotomist by Partridge Boswel
Blitzkrieg in the Library by Seamus Scanlon
Whatever else by Jane Williams
The Fisherboy´s Knots by Paris Rosemont
Kells Turning by Elaine O’Connor
BIOGRAPHIES
Michael Lavers is the author of two poetry collections, After Earth and The Inextinguishable, both published by the University of Tampa Press. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, AGNI, Southwest Review, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere. He has been awarded the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize, the Moth Poetry Prize, and theBridport Poetry Prize. He teaches poetry at Brigham Young University.
Wes Lee has three poetry collections. Most recently she was awarded the Magma Editors’ Prize 2024/05; the 2024 Free Verse Prize, by The Poetry Society, in London; the Heroines/Joyce Parkes Women’s Writing Prize 2022, in New South Wales, and placed in The Plaza Poetry Prize 2025. Her short story ‘How They Live Now’ was the subject of The Stinging Fly Podcast for September 2022, originally selected by Sally Rooney and read by Susannah Dickey, in Dublin.
Sue Burge is a freelance writer, mentor and editor based in North Norfolk, UK. She is also a film-studies tutor with a penchant for silent film, road movies and David Lynch. Her most recent poetry collection, The Artificial Parisienne (Live Canon 2024 ), explores the alter ego she left behind in Paris three decades ago and her edgy on-going relationship with the city. Her eco-angst collection, watch it slowly fade, is forthcoming with Yaffle Press.
Kate Bailey is a violinist and musician who has always enjoyed writing, photography and languages on the side. Her house is rather like a jumble sale, and her garden like a jungle, and she suspects that these analogies extend to the contents of her brain. One of her biggest joys (other than music, eating and her family and friends) is listening to a blackbird singing. She is married with two grown-up daughters and lives in Oxford.
Partridge Boswell is the author of the 2024 Fool for Poetry Prize-winning chapbook Levis Corner House and Grolier Poetry Prize-winning collection Some Far Country. He is co-founder of Bookstock Literary Festival and teaches at Vallum Society for Education in Arts & Letters in Montreal. He troubadours widely with the bard band Los Lorcas—touring Ireland and West Cork’s inhabited islands in support of their new album Wild Island in June 2025.
Seamus Scanlon loves Fish so but not so, fish. Because a vegan. He explores the ambiguity of the Irish towards violence and pressing social issues like skorts in camogie.Recent fiction outings include Walking the Thin Line (Promethean); I Follow (2024 Fish Anthology). Recent drama outings include The McGowan Trilogy, Thomastown (May 2025). Recent gym outings, zero. Recent failings, greater than zero. Recent and recurrent longing, Organico (Bantry). Work in progress – The Skorts Trilogy (Play). www.seamusscanlon.com
Jane Williams was born in England to Irish and Australian parents and was raised in Australia. Widely published and anthologised, Jane is the author of several collections of poems and has featured at readings and festivals in countries including Ireland, Canada, Malaysia and Slovakia. Her poem Whatever else was written during a Hosking Houses Trust Writers’ residency near Stratford-Upon-Avon. Jane lives in Lutruwita/Tasmania. For more: janecwilliams.com
Paris Rosemont is an Asian-Australian poet and author of Banana Girl (2023) and Barefoot Poetess (2025). Her debut was long and shortlisted for Poetry Book Awards 2024 in Australia, Greece and the UK, and was awarded ‘Distinguished Favorite’ in the NYC Independent Press Award 2025 (USA). Paris takes delight in bringing her poetry to life through performance. She has graced stages at events and festivals in almost every state/territory within Australia. Find her at www.parisrosemont.com
Elaine O’Connor raised two children as a solo parent, which drove her into the Civil Service, where imaginative writing was not unknown. Returning to real creative writing, her stories, No Competition and Carmel were Highly Commended in the Historical Writers Association (2024) & Bedford Competitions (2025). The Long Road Home, (unpublished) was short-listed in the Cinnamon Press First Novel competition (2025). Her next novel, The Herbalists, traces a devout young Victorian woman’s descent to murder. Current ambitions? Find an agent and get those novels published.
SHORT-LIST in alphabetical order. (72 poems. Total entry was 1,886)
Alan Coombe |
On the 468 bus |
Anne Casey |
Night flier |
Anne Casey |
Shift |
Anne Casey |
Mal at Mothar |
Brian Hill |
Egyptian Soul |
Carolyn Curtis-Mahoney |
Fairy Dust |
Christopher Watson |
Cicuta / Water Hemlock |
Dean Gessie |
a theory of everything |
Derek Dickinson |
Irish Nocturne |
Derval Walsh |
How to Write a Love Poem |
Derval Walsh |
Soldiers |
Di Slaney |
Why changing a duvet is like writing a poem |
Doreen Gurrey |
Adam and Eve |
Elaine O’Connor |
Kells Turning |
Gail Ingram |
Homesick (or imposter syndrome) |
Ian Egan |
The Poem as Poem |
Jane Williams |
Whatever else |
Jim Conwell |
Father Fitzgerald |
Johanna Magin |
The Prophet Is Dead |
Johanna Magin |
There ought to be a poem |
Johanna Magin |
The Fact of Living |
Johanna Magin |
Small Fires |
Johanna Magin |
In One Room With a Question |
Johanna Magin |
Rage Becomes Her |
Johanna Magin |
Solastalgia |
Johanna Magin |
10 Bucks |
John Bourke |
Komorebi |
John Walsh |
Fenian Dead |
John Williams |
The Cook’s Shipwreck |
Kate Bailey Wilson |
On Meeting Shakespeare in the Supermarket |
Kathy Miles |
Bees |
Kerry Gray |
Sun setting over Ardglass harbour |
Kizziah Burton |
If you are taken like Persephone |
Kizziah Burton |
This Wood I Am of Owl and Ghost |
Lou Amyx |
When My People Come |
Lydia Kennaway |
Incident – Recurring Dream No 5 |
Lynnda Wardle |
How far away would you need to be |
Marcella Remund |
Spirals |
Marian Brannigan |
Letters from Anamar School 1969 |
Mary Catherine Lake |
The whole length of the long road |
Mary Mulholland |
Sister, rewind |
Matt Hohner |
At a Friend’s Grave on His Birthday |
Michael Andrew Coverson |
Bulls Head Car Park, January 1964 |
Michael Lavers |
The Harvesters |
Michael Lavers |
On Cabbages |
Michael Lavers |
Darkness and Rain |
Michael Miller |
hanging out |
Michael Swan |
SGM |
Michelle Dennehy |
Reasons the Goddess Persists in Persuit of the National School Teacher who is the Pure Image of Eamon de Valera |
Mike Baynham |
QUARTET |
Miranda Saake |
Rapunzel |
Nancy Schoenberger |
13 Miller’s Court: Mary Jane Kelly |
Paris Rosemont |
The Fisherboy’s Knots |
Partridge Boswell |
Aubade to My Phlebotomist |
Patricia Sheppard |
Intake at the Juvenile Detention Centre |
Patrick Keedy Brown |
This Is Not A New Story |
paul Newton |
The Beginning and the End |
Peggy Acott |
Town Center Village Assisted Living Facility |
Pratibha Castle |
THE DAY MY FATHER LOITERS IN THE STREET |
Robin Schwarz |
Fire in the Palisades |
Robin Schwarz |
Last August |
Seamus Scanlon |
Where it Counts |
Seamus Scanlon |
Blitzcrieg at the Library |
Seamus Scanlon |
Winnie Battle |
Sharon Black |
Billy Collins in the Old Coachhouse, En-suite |
Shoshauna Shy |
(No) Return to Sender |
Sue Burge |
A zuihitsu on how everything is about my estranged father |
Susanne Kennedy |
Lawn Sprinkler |
Susanne Kennedy |
Spirit Level |
Susanne Kennedy |
Swimming in the Wet |
Susanne Kennedy |
Turkey Swan Raptor |
Vaughan Hoy |
Montblanc |
Wes Lee |
Prayer at the Cove |
LONG-LIST in alphabetical order. (242 poems. Total entry was 1,886)
Agnes Dussault |
Maybe I keep breaking all of my cellphones because |
Áine Rose Connell |
The Anxious Brain Resides West of Amygdala Creek |
Alan Coombe |
Troy Town |
Alan Coombe |
On the 468 bus |
Alan Coombe |
On the 468 bus |
Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana |
Mash-up of Moments in Shizuoka Prefecture |
Allen Shadow |
Hunter and Me |
Anita Gail Tucker |
Mother’s Ruin |
Anita Gail Tucker |
Ashore |
Anne Casey |
Shift |
Anne Casey |
Night flier |
Anne Casey |
Shift |
Anne Casey |
Mal at Mothar |
Anne Cousins |
HOLY |
Annette Sisson |
True North, Tracings, Seizing the Throne |
Anthony Lawrence |
Listening to James Wright Read… |
Bill Richardson |
Passage Tomb |
Bill Richardson |
The Saint’s Eyes, Fixed To The Floor, |
Brian Hill |
Egyptian Soul |
Carolyn Curtis-Mahoney |
Fairy Dust |
Christopher Stocks |
The Last of England |
Christopher Watson |
Smoke Tree |
Christopher Watson |
Learning to Read |
Christopher Watson |
Cicuta / Water Hemlock |
Christopher Watson |
Cicuta / Water Hemlock |
Cindy Snow |
Relearning the World |
Clif Mason |
Auabade |
Colette Tennant |
Trying to Remember What I Never Knew |
Daniel Dempster |
Saltmetallemonspit |
David Austin |
Home. |
Dean Gessie |
a theory of everything |
Derek Dickinson |
Blue Morpho |
Derek Dickinson |
Icebox Aphorisms |
Derek Dickinson |
Irish Nocturne |
Derval Walsh |
How to Write a Love Poem |
Derval Walsh |
Soldiers |
Di Slaney |
I am a contract killer |
Di Slaney |
Me and Mrs Jones |
Di Slaney |
Road trips |
Di Slaney |
The little kist |
Di Slaney |
The weather is another animal |
Di Slaney |
Eighth poem – Tomato love |
Di Slaney |
Two horses running through the |
Di Slaney |
Tenth poem – Why changing a duvet |
Donna Harlan |
Suspension |
Doreen Gurrey |
Adam and Eve |
Dragana Lazici |
I try to explain my four identities to |
Elaine O’Connor |
Kells Turning |
Elaine O’Connor |
Kells Turning |
Elena Croitoru |
The Likeness |
Elisa Alt |
Everyone You’ve Ever Loved |
Elizabeth Palmerton |
Mississippi Barn |
Elizabeth Whyatt |
Hop Pickers |
Elizabeth Whyatt |
Anthems |
Emma Goldman-Sherman |
[Let there be a world of slowness] |
Emma Murf |
What to Do If You’re Stuck in a Conversation About Fishing |
Emma Neale |
Matinée Performance in my Aunt and Uncle’s Garden |
Fokkina McDonnell |
Love poem written on a Zoom workshop |
G. Smyth Bernes |
The heat of his touch |
Gail Ingram |
Homesick (or imposter syndrome) |
Gavin Duffy |
Stare Down |
Geraldine Stoneham |
Letter to Fleur Adcock, c. 1995 |
Hajri Aga |
The Anatomy of a Goat |
Harry Bauld |
Visiting the Book |
Helen Bar Lev |
Ceasefire |
Helen Pinoff |
ORDER |
Ian Chambers |
Morning Cuppa |
Ian Egan |
The Poem as Poem |
Imogen Osborne |
Flies |
Irene Evans |
Forecast |
Jane Williams |
Whatever else |
Janice Warman |
I’ve made a list of things for you to worry about |
JAX AINSLEY-RITCHIE |
MEDITATION ON MY LEFT HAND |
JAX AINSLEY-RITCHIE |
Jaws |
JAX AINSLEY-RITCHIE |
HYACINTHS IN THE HALLWAY |
JAX AINSLEY-RITCHIE |
Questions for the Oracle |
JAX AINSLEY-RITCHIE |
In The Kitchen |
JAX AINSLEY-RITCHIE |
OUT IN THE WOODS |
Jean Tuomey |
Unannounced |
Jed Myers |
Poem to My Partner on Her Birthday |
Jed Myers |
Reflection |
Jennifer Dunlop |
Ravelling Hope |
Jim Conwell |
Father Fitzgerald |
Johanna Magin |
Ode to Ellipses |
Johanna Magin |
What They Never Tell You |
Johanna Magin |
Chaos de Huelgoat |
Johanna Magin |
The New Order |
Johanna Magin |
We’ve Eaten War |
Johanna Magin |
10 Bucks |
Johanna Magin |
The Prophet Is Dead |
Johanna Magin |
There ought to be a poem |
Johanna Magin |
The Fact of Living |
Johanna Magin |
Small Fires |
Johanna Magin |
In One Room With a Question |
Johanna Magin |
Rage Becomes Her |
Johanna Magin |
Solastalgia |
Johanna Magin |
10 Bucks |
John Bourke |
Komorebi |
John Bourke |
Komorebi |
John Stapleton |
Camus on the Beach |
John Stapleton |
The End of Encyclopaedias |
John Stapleton |
Winter Warriors |
John Walsh |
Fenian Dead |
John Williams |
Taseko’s Hands |
John Williams |
The Cook’s Shipwreck |
Joseph Hoban |
Two Windows |
Judith Thurley |
The Wind |
Julian Wakeling |
Samuel Palmer Moon |
Karen J McDonnell |
Tidal |
Kate Bailey Wilson |
On Meeting Shakespeare in the Supermarket |
Katherine Bonamo |
One Last Meeting, On Zoom |
Katherine Hahn Falk |
Wasted Time |
Kathy Miles |
1950’s Mothers |
Kathy Miles |
Washerwoman |
Kathy Miles |
Bees |
Kerry Gray |
Sun setting over Ardglass harbour |
Kevin Brodie |
Tremors |
Kevin Smith |
A Corner On Bombowlee Creek Road |
Kevin Smith |
Boulder |
Kim Maley |
dry |
Kizziah Burton |
This is a portrait of a mother holding a |
Kizziah Burton |
Teaching a Girl to Talk in Our Language |
Kizziah Burton |
Wild Strawberries |
Kizziah Burton |
The Child in the Winds |
Kizziah Burton |
The Old Road Tells Me The Way is Long and Narrow |
Kizziah Burton |
I Am Afraid of Dying |
Kizziah Burton |
Something higher than my soul was trapped |
Kizziah Burton |
If you are taken like Persephone |
Kizziah Burton |
This Wood I Am of Owl and Ghost |
KP McCarthy |
Near to Nether |
Lana Holman |
Give Me a Day |
Lani O’Hanlon |
Uile Uice/All Heal |
Lani O’Hanlon |
For Rain |
Lee Stockdale |
Oh, Sister |
Lesley Sharpe |
Spell to quell a storm |
Lesley Sharpe |
The unbroken line of ink |
Lesley Sharpe |
Out of season |
Lesley Sharpe |
Hindsight |
Lou Amyx |
When My People Come |
Lou Amyx |
When My People Come |
Lou Lesovitch |
The Gift |
Lydia Kennaway |
Incident – Recurring Dream No 5 |
Lynnda Wardle |
How far away would you need to be |
Lynne S Viti |
Crazy Legs at St. Rita’s Fair |
Madeleine Lamm |
Louisville |
Marcella Remund |
Spirals |
Marian Brannigan |
Letters from Anamar School 1969 |
Marion Quednau |
Ivory |
Mary Catherine Lake |
Searching for a lost lottery ticket |
Mary Catherine Lake |
It was written in the margin |
Mary Catherine Lake |
The whole length of the long road |
Mary Mulholland |
how to choose a new washing machine |
Mary Mulholland |
Sister, rewind |
Matt Hohner |
At a Friend’s Grave on His Birthday |
Melanie Tibbs |
The Day the Poet Came to Our Town |
Michael Andrew Coverson |
Bulls Head Car Park, January 1964 |
Michael Lavers |
The Leap |
Michael Lavers |
On Hearing the Buddhist Describe her Enightenment |
Michael Lavers |
The Harvesters |
Michael Lavers |
On Cabbages |
Michael Lavers |
Darkness and Rain |
Michael Miller |
hanging out |
Michael Pearce |
Queen Sidra |
Michael Pearce |
Bucket of Noise |
Michael Shoemaker |
détente |
Michael Swan |
Everything was very interesting |
Michael Swan |
SGM |
Michelle Dennehy |
Reasons the Goddess Persists in Persuit of the National School Teacher who is the Pure Image of Eamon de Valera |
Mike Baynham |
NEVER ONCE |
Mike Baynham |
COOKING |
Mike Baynham |
SNOWFALL |
Mike Baynham |
AN T-EILIAN MUILEACH |
Mike Baynham |
QUARTET |
Miranda Saake |
Rapunzel |
Nan Montgomery |
Common Blue |
Nancy Schoenberger |
13 Miller’s Court: Mary Jane Kelly |
Nancy Steinkraus |
Grace |
Nicholas Rice |
Beacon |
Paris Rosemont |
The Fisherboy’s Knots |
Partridge Boswell |
Aubade to My Phlebotomist |
Partridge Boswell |
Aubade to My Phlebotomist |
Patricia Demery |
Sticky Lozenge |
Patricia Sheppard |
Underwater Search and Recovery Unit |
Patricia Sheppard |
Intake at the Juvenile Detention Centre |
Patrick Keedy Brown |
This Is Not A New Story |
Paul Newton |
The Beginning and the End |
Paul Newton |
The Beginning and the End |
Paula Brancato |
Love |
Peggy Acott |
Town Center Village Assisted Living Facility |
Peter Lindley |
Foundling |
Peter Tadd |
Quantum High |
Phil Hawtin |
On Walking from Albert Bridge to Marden |
Pratibha Castle |
THE DAY MY FATHER LOITERS IN THE STREET |
Raymond Ferik |
Cloister |
Rob Barth |
George |
Rob Ritchie |
Mother, Moon |
Robin Schwarz |
Fire in the Palisades |
Robin Schwarz |
Last August |
Robin Schwarz |
Fire in the Palisades |
Robin Schwarz |
Last August |
Robin Shohet |
Parlez-vous Love? |
Roger Bonner |
Ocean Days |
Róisín Leggett Bohan |
I Lose My Mother |
Róisín Leggett Bohan |
We Lost Baby Jesus |
Sandy Longley |
Please Let Us Know How We Did |
Seamus Scanlon |
Where it Counts |
Seamus Scanlon |
Winnie Battle |
Seamus Scanlon |
Blitzcrieg at the Library |
Seán Ó Dálaigh |
Crying on the Dancefloor |
Seohyun Lee |
Poetry Prize Submission |
Seth Kronick |
Learning to Love the Feeling of Falling |
Sharon Black |
Billy Collins in the Old Coachhouse, En-suite |
Shelley Stenhouse |
When a Hand Comes Home with Yo… |
Shoshauna Shy |
(No) Return to Sender |
Sinéad Griffin |
Naming a Baby |
Soma Mei Sheng Frazier |
Budapest |
Stephen Pollock |
Diabolus in Musica |
Sue Burge |
A zuihitsu on how everything |
Susan Dines |
Imposter Syndrome |
Susan Landgraf |
Frogs |
Susan Taylor |
Making Sense |
Susanne Kennedy |
Lawn Sprinkler |
Susanne Kennedy |
Spirit Level |
Susanne Kennedy |
Swimming in the Wet |
Susanne Kennedy |
Turkey Swan Raptor |
Sylvia Cohen |
I Talk to my Father Across the Styx |
Thomas Williamson |
The Last of All I Loved |
Tim Relf |
Be 100% satisfied EVERY SINGLE TIME |
Tom Moore |
Lunch Poem |
Veronica A. Bettencourt |
The Gloomy Octopus |
Veronica A. Bettencourt |
Panini Maker |
V. P. Loggins |
Baptism |
Vanessa Lampert |
Almost Certainly |
Vaughan Hoy |
Montblanc |
Wes Lee |
The Newborn |
Wes Lee |
A City Wakes |
Wes Lee |
Prayer at the Cove |
Terence McGinity |
Help is Coming |