Thank you to all those who submitted to Love and Loss
The contest judge, Sheila E. Murphy, has made the following selections:
First prize: ‘Gerard at 35’ by Sue Norton
Second prize: ‘The night I start my period, I dream of Molly’ by Caitlin Tina Jones
Third prize: ‘above the shawarma kebab shop & the bank of china on sauchiehall street glasgow’ by Ali Whitelock
The following poems have also been highly commended and will be published alongside the prizewinners in a special issue of The Passionfruit Review in late March 2025:
the bed was too small – Maritsa Grey
In the Morning In the City – Elizabeth J. Coleman
This Again – Jane Bonnyman
season 2 episode 3 – Billie Manning
Poem Beginning with a Line by Khalil Gibran – Billie Manning
Nothing Like the Wind – Nathan Hicks
Inheritance of Water – Jai Michelle Louissen
Night Wood – Jai Michelle Louissen
Counting Back the Milestones – Jonathan Miller
I lose you better – Millie Woodrow
About the judge
Sheila E. Murphy’s Escritoire will appear from Lavender Ink in 2025. Her most recent books are Permission to Relax (BlazeVOX, 2023), October Sequence: Sections 1-51 (mOnocle-Lash Anti-Press, 2023), Sostenuto (Luna Bisonte Prods (2023) and Golden Milk (Luna Bisonte Prods, 2020). She won the Gertrude Stein award for her book Letters to Unfinished J. Reporting Live From You Know Where won the Hay(na)ku Book Prize from Meritage Press. Murphy has authored 45 books of poetry.
You can find some of her poetry in Issue 3 and Issue 9 of The Passionfruit Review, or check out her Wikipedia page.