LAUREN Delapenha and Jovanté Anderson were named joint winners of the Helen Zell: Young Writers Prize for Poetry at the inaugural celebration of World Poetry Day in Jamaica, yesterday.
The competition was organised by Poet Laureate of Jamaica Lorna Goodison, as part of her mandate to sure up and encourage the next generation of writers and poets in Jamaica.
The adjudicating panel, headed by Professor Edward Baugh, found it hard to separate Delapenha and Anderson, who both won over the other two shortlisted poets Khadijah Chin and Britney Gabbidon.
Speaking to the Jamaica Observer shortly after being announced in a ceremony at the Knutsford Court Hotel in St Andrew, Delapenha expressed delight about being chosen.
“It's overwhelming and... truly an honour. The biggest part for me is to be able to build a community of Jamaican poets... so to meet such wonderful poets as Lorna Goodison, Mervyn Morris, Edward Baugh, but also to have met the other three contestants here... that to me is the best prize of all,” she said as she tried to process the moment.
It was her mother who told her about the competition and encouraged her to enter.
“She is the one who discovered the competition and encouraged me to apply and has been encouraging me with poetry for a long time now. So I want to tell her 'Thank you so much for your persistence'. Poetry in Jamaica is blossoming and there is so much more for me personally to discover in it, and I am very excited to go on that journey not just alone but with all the poets here today,” she added
The winners each received a cash prize of US$1,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment