The Poetry Society

The Geoffrey Dearmer Prize 2003

Rebecca O'Connor

The winner of the Geoffrey Dearmer poetry prize 2003 is Rebecca O'Connor, for her poem 'A Bag of Tangerines', which was published in Poetry Review 92:4 (Winter 2002/3).

This year's judge was the poet Matthew Welton, who said: "Rebecca O'Connor's 'A Bag of Tangerines' is a poem that occupies itself, and, in that, it does as much as any poem has to. The poem is striking in how simple it appears, but, of course, it can only have this effect because it is put together so well. Like sewing a straight seam or stretching a tight drumskin, making a poem is a matter where the technical achievement is better if it doesn't draw attention to itself. And 'A Bag of Tangerines' is a poem on which the work has definitely been done." Matthew also commended two other shortlisted poems: Jon Woodward's "your eyes are just hanging" (93:2) and Carrie Etter's "Fin de Siècle" (93:2).

A Bag of Tangerines