We are delighted to announce the judging panel for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award 2024.
In line with the Trust’s aim of being proactive about reaching different communities who may not otherwise consider entering the Award, we have assembled a Nomination Committee who will each nominate two poets who they feel are deserving of a place on the EMPA 2024 longlist.
Two members of the Nomination Committee will then join our two Peer Reviewers to review all of the open-call entries and select 10 for the longlist. All of the judges will work together to select the shortlist from the final longlist of 20 (comprising 10 nominated poets and 10 open-call poets) and decide on the final winner(s).
The EMPA 2024 Nomination Committee
Éadaoín Lynch is an Irish poet & researcher based in Edinburgh. With Alycia Pirmohamed, they co-edited Re·creation, A Queer Poetry Anthology (Stewed Rhubarb Press), and they have performed as a headliner act at multiple events and festivals around the UK. Their work has appeared in Gutter, The North Magazine, and the Fawn Press anthology Elements, among others; it has also been shortlisted for the Jane Martin Poetry Prize and the London Magazine Poetry Prize. Fierce Scrow, their debut poetry pamphlet, launched in 2022 with Nine Pens Press.
Ellen Renton is a poet, performer, and theatre maker from Edinburgh. She published her pamphlet ‘An Eye For An Eye For An Eye’ with Stewed Rhubarb Press in 2021, and released collaborative album ‘My Noise is Nothing’ with Lord of the Isles in 2023. She is the writer of the one woman show ‘Within Sight’, and the 2023 Stellar Quines production ‘Disciples’.
Esraa Husain (all pronouns) is a freelance creative writer, community curator, researcher and facilitator based in Glasgow. They are the founder and director of @UBelongGlasgow, a multilingual community platform that features LGBT+, BPOC and disabled creatives, est. 2020. Their writings can be found online and in print in The Skinny, Scottish BPOC Writers Network, Gutter, Somewhere for Us, The Bottle Imp and more. Insta: @ehbenh | Twitter: @efreebh | FB: Esraa Husain/U Belong Glasgow
Rody Gorman was born in Dublin in 1960. He lectures in creative writing, works as an official and literary translator, and edits the annual bilingual anthology An Guth. He has published collections of poetry of his own in English, Irish and Scottish Gaelic. Lorg Eile/Final Call, his latest New and Selected collection, was published in May 2022.
Samuel Tongue is an award-winning and widely published poet, and former poetry editor at the Glasgow Review of Books. He is currently editor of Postbox, Scotland’s International Short Story Magazine and works as Project Coordinator at the Scottish Poetry Library.
Peer Reviewers
Niall Campbell is a poet from the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. His first poetry collection, Moontide, was published by Bloodaxe Books and won the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award and the Saltire First Book of the Year. Noctuary, his second collection, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. He lives in Fife.
Iona Lee is a poet, artist, music-maker, storyteller and spoken-word performer from Edinburgh. She has been a prominent figure in Scotland’s live poetry scene for ten years, appearing on radio and television and performing her work in venues and on festival stages all over the UK and Europe. Her debut pamphlet, published by Polygon in 2018, was shortlisted for a Saltire award, and her debut collection (Anamnesis, 2023) was shortlisted for the Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. In 2022, Iona completed an MFA in Philosophy & Fine Art, won the John Byrne Award for her poetry film ‘Away With the Faeries’, and was included in Young Women Scotland’s ‘30 Under 30’ list.
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