13th Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize
Judge:Andrew Motion
The winner of the thirteenth Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize is Christopher Cessac’s The Youngest Ocean.
Mr Cessac, of Toronto, Canada, will receive a cheque for $3,000 and Waywiser will publish The Youngest Ocean, in October 2018, when he will read alongside Andrew Motion, the thirteenth contest’s judge, at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
It took the press’s screening panel two months of careful reading, deliberation and discussion to narrow the field to the group of finalists which, stripped of all identifying reference, was then sent to Professor Motion. His decision was relayed to the press in the second week of March.
Our congratulations go not just to Christopher Cessac and to those whose manuscripts reached the later stages of the contest — the semi-finalists and finalists are listed below — but to everyone else who entered. It is thanks to everyone who participated that the latest contest has been another big success.
More information about Christopher Cessac and the other poets who made it to the last stages of the contest can be accessed by clicking on the links below.
Winner
Christopher Cessac, The Youngest Ocean
Nominees
(in name order)
Audrey Bohanan, Any Keep or Contour
Johnny Horton, Vesuvius after Dark
Marsha Pomerantz, The God’s Honest Truth
Alison Prine, Ghostwriting My Autobiography
Austin Segrest, Canticle
Anne-Marie Thompson, Mama Calls Me Crying
Jonathan Weinert, Indifferent Country
William Winfield Wright, Birds Vs Cosmonauts