Susie Wilson honoured at 2024 Disabled Poets Prize for 'sequence of melanoma poems'

The 2024 Disabled Poets Prize winners have been announced with Susie Wilson winning the Unpublished Pamphlet category for her “sequence of melanoma poems”.  

The winners were announced at an online event during Deptford Literature Festival on 16th March. The award is supported by the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and aims to find the best work created by UK-based deaf and disabled poets, in written English and in British Sign Language.   

Best Unpublished Pamphlet 2024 was awarded to Wilson for “Nowhere Near As Safe As a Snake In Bed”. Second place went to Anna Starkey for “All These Frequencies", and third place to Amber Horne for “So She Spoke”. “Exit Amours” by Ozge Gozturk, “Learning in Nine Keys” by Norman Miller and “Scar Tissue” by Danne Jobin were all highly commended by the judges.   

Wilson said: “Thank you so much to Pascale Petit and Jamie Hale for selecting my sequence of melanoma poems to win the unpublished pamphlet prize. It is fantastic to know that they will get their day in the sun. Living as I do with Stage 4 melanoma, ‘getting published’ was my single bucket list item and I’m delighted that I’m gonna need a bigger bucket.   

“As an auDHD poet, it’s brilliant to be able to represent the complexity of what we are capable of (in my case perhaps often left-field/surreal image links and sound/language patterning characteristic of my auDHD) while at the same time having the helping hand which this prize brings to get to market and develop further

“The Disabled Poet Prize last year made me realise that it’s no good waiting to feel better, or be ok, or get on top of things. It made me see that it’s possible to get on with writing with hope and verve.” 

The award for Best Single Poem 2024 goes to Gayathiri Kamalakanthan for “Eating An Orange”. In second place was Rachel Burns and her poem “Blue Monday” while third place went to Alex Mepham for “Dark Matter”. “Could this be how to love” by Elizabeth Gibson, “Ward 9” by Vera Yuen, and “A Horse Walks into a Bar – After Tyrone Lewis” by Dee Dickens were all highly commended by the judges.   

Kamalakanthan said: “It’s meaningful that this prize exists — it makes me feel like I’m a writer, even when writing is painful and slow. I can’t type for very long so I often record myself speaking bits and pieces that could become poems. This poem thinks about the admin and scheduling of grief, which for me mirrors some of the admin and scheduling around long-term physical pain.”

For each award, first place is £500, second place wins £250, and third place wins £100. The highly commended entries will each be awarded £50. The Disabled Poets Prize also offers professional development opportunities for the winning writers, including a publication deal with Verve Poetry Press for the best unpublished pamphlet, as well as development prizes from The Literary Consultancy and Arvon Foundation

Sahera Khan’s poem “My Eyes” was highly commended by the judges in the category Best Poem Performed in BSL. She will receive £300 as well as a one-to-one with an editor at The Literary Consultancy and a free membership to its Being a Writer community platform. She also receives an online masterclass by Arvon, and an online professional development session with CRIPtic Arts and Spread the Word.   

The 2024 Disabled Poets Prize was judged by Pascale Petit, Stephen Lightbown, Kabir Kapoor — the British Deaf Association’s UK BSL Poet Laureate – and Jamie Hale, who founded the prize last year in collaboration with Spread the Word, Verve Poetry Press and CRIPtic Arts. This year’s prize was funded by the ALCS and supported by The Literary Consultancy and Arvon Foundation.

The award is actively seeking donations and conversations with people and organisations that are interested in supporting deaf and disabled poets, and would like to contribute to its growth.