New writing WOMEN'S POETRY COMPETITION 2006 Guest Editor WENDY COPE introduces the winners and runners-up SEVERAL years ago, I was interviewed by a woman journalist (who also wrote poems) about a competition that I had judged with two other poets. She gave me a hard time because she thought we had chosen too few poems by women. I explained that the entries had all been anonymous. It wouldn’t have been possible to discriminate in favour of women, even if I’d wanted to, which I most certainly didn’t. This wasn’t good enough for the interviewer. Surely, she said, I must have been able to tell the difference. In fact, judging a number of competitions over the years, I have been surprised to find that it isn’t possible to tell the difference. Poems that sound as if they must have been written by a woman can turn out to be by a man, and vice versa. This time, no-one can attack me for picking too few women. All the winners are female – unless some naughty man has done what a male Anglican vicar did to Virago a few years back, putting an Asian woman’s name on his manuscript and only revealing his true identity after it had been accepted. I couldn’t help finding this funny, even though I would defend Virago’s right to be a women-only publisher, and Mslexia’s right to run a women-only competition. Anyway, if there does turn out to be a man in my list of winners, please note that I never claimed to be able to spot the gender. I hope I’ve spotted the best poems, although it is important to remember that there is always an element of luck in poetry competitions. To be among the winners your poem has to be good. But there will inevitably be some good poems that just didn’t appeal to that particular judge. If yours didn’t get anywhere this time, don’t give up hope. For the complete essay, and for Wendy's full selection of poetry winners, read issue 30 • Subscribe! Read the winning poem chosen by Wendy Cope For a plain man by Marianne Burton Read the top three prizewinning poems For more on WENDY COPE, go to www.contemporarywriters.com
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