Dorothy Fryd
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17/11/09
A Third Festival Poet Crowned, but the Judges had a surprise!
On October 9th the third adult poetry competition reached a glorious conclusion. The number and quality of entries continues to rise. More than 200 poems were entered, 38 had been selected to be published in the 2009 collection, available priced at £3 from the festival offices or at venues throughout the Festival. The judges, Simon Smith, Sue Rose and Nick Hunt had selected a shortlist of 11 to be read during the finals evening. A judge introduced each of these and then the poet invited to read. When Dorothy Fryd took to the stage she explained that her style of writing had moved on since submitting the selected poem; she performed a newer work.
This surprised the audience but also placed the judges in a quandary, for they knew that her first poem was strong contender for a prize, but surely could not win without being heard. Fortunately she was prevailed upon during the interval to come to the stage for a second time. By the end of the evening the audience had heard “On paper; this is and affair” twice for it was awarded the top prize and was reread as a conclusion to the evening. It is likely to be read as part of next year’s event as it has become one of the happy traditions that the previous year’s festival poet gives a short reading ending with the winning poem. Sue Rose, Festival Poet 2008 did so this year and we can look forward to an exciting performance from Dorothy in 2010.
Marilyn Donovan was awarded second prize for “ Perspective: Louis Bleriot’s cross-Channel Flight”. Nicky Gould was third with “ Shoe Leather Wine”, Ray Grinney highly commended with “Things I used to know”. Dan Simpson was awarded the “Best read prize” for his performance of “My Dad’s on Facebook”.
The evening, which included songs from the local singer songwriter, Richard Lewis, held in the delightful surroundings of The Dominican Priory was a fine celebration of local writing and a glorious prequel to the Festival itself. We all look forward to the event in 2010, as this is now an established part of the Friends events, supporting and enhancing the Festival. Please start writing your entries and encouraging all your neighbours to do the same.
Nick Hunt, Oct 2009.
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