WINNER: Charlotte Eichler, United Kingdom

Poem Title: Woman and Wall

Selected Artwork: Mohammed Issiakhem, Woman and Wall, 1977-78

The poet said she was drawn by the painting’s “ghostly atmosphere,” while judge Tishani Doshi, who selected the work, called it both an “unfurling and a containment.” She said, “The assurance with which the poem moves and shifts registers impressed me. There’s a mirroring aspect throughout, in the body the poem describes, as well as the language used to describe that body. The poet seems intent on showing us the constraints – whether it’s the “bars of my ribs” or “the town’s violet limits,” but is also contrasting these with a kind of emancipation, an opening – “blue shimmers through us.” There is insistence in this poem, of being alive, of giving life. The last stanza and that final image of the storks clacking beaks – the “hard kind of love in dirty nests,” devastated me. This is the voice of a poet who understands both beauty and restraint, using empty space in the poem not just to offer breath, but to hint at unspoken things.”

RUNNER UP: Sofia Ezdina, Russia

Poem Title: Uncharted Map of the Body and Remembrance of Childhood

Selected Artwork: Huguette Caland, Bribes de Corps, 1971

Of the poem, Doshi said, “I fell in love with the rich landscape of this poem. Language and image work together in a thrilling way to map the territory of childhood, place, and body. To juxtapose the taiga of river ice and blueberry thickets with damp housing estates, to contrast “port light” with “watermelon light” – this is a dexterous poet who sees all the hues of the world. I found so much magic in this poem – it led me into unfamiliar worlds (where elk have to walk days to lose antler, of kraken and craters and whales reigning over a reef). It reminded me of that electric quality of experiencing wildness. By the time we arrive at the last sentence– “the pines here are frighteningly/ high” – we are well invested in this poet’s dream.”