Winners of the 2026 Rosemary McLeish Poetry Prize
Wordsmithery are excited to announce the winners for the 2026 Rosemary McLeish Poetry Prize.
The Poetry Prize is generously funded by Rosemary’s widower, Richard Cooper, and was judged this year by poet Jessica Mookherjee. Thanks Jess, for your considered reading of the poems.
The Prize was set up with the intention of honouring Rosemary’s love of Nature, and both her hopes and fears about what humans are doing to the world. And there was a lot to fear this year: in the UK, and around the globe, 2026 has consistently been the driest and hottest since records began. Our rivers have faded away to cracked and dry, our nature ponds have left froglets gasping and exposed, our reservoirs have emptied; And server farms have greedily contributed to the loss of more and more of our vital water, as tech billionaires insist on adding ever more AI enhancements to digital services that have been working alright without them for decades.
This year's prize topic was ‘River’. Being based where we are, on the banks of the river Medway, we can hardly ignore its constant presence and the role it plays in our arts, and our lives. The poets addressed a huge range of topics related to rivers; Climate change, rivers as memories and the river as a metaphor for the body. We were inspired by each and every one of the poems, well done to everyone who entered and was listed.
Prizes were announced at A Celebration of Rosemary McLeish at Medway River Lit on Friday 6 November. Poets read their winning poems, and a new collection of poems and art by Rosemary was previewed. (This will be available to purchase shortly from Wordsmithery.)
The winners:
Above left to right: Zelda, Penny and Helen.
1st place: Scare
Zelda Cahill-Patten
Judge's comment: ‘Moving accomplished, well-crafted and memorable.’
Zelda Cahill-Patten is a poet and researcher based in Kent. She won the New Poets Prize 2026 and her debut pamphlet is forthcoming from Smith|Doorstop. You can find her recent work in 14 magazine, Under the Radar and Gail’s Companion.
2nd place: Cockle Women of Penclawdd & Talycharn
Penny Sharman
Judge's comment: ‘Great use of incantation, the visceral re-enacting of women’s work and labour and landscape.’
Penny Sharman is a published poet, photographer, and artist. She won first Prize in the 2025 Charles Causley International Poetry Competition; Her 6th collection Sunbathing with Fishermen is available from her website pennysharman.co.uk Penny is Co Editor of Obsessed with Pipework Poetry Magazine. Her new collection is due out late 2027 with Ings Press.
3rd place: I Research the Site of the Macfarlane Glasgow Factory
Helen Kay
Judge's comment: ‘Strong use of image, line, craft and also moving re meaning of work.’
Helen Kay is a tree hugging poetry activist and core member of Poetry Whitchurch in Shropshire. Her debut collection It Was Never About the Kingfisher (Dithering Chaps) was shortlisted for the 2025 Rubery Awards. She is known on Facebook for her puppet Nigella.
Commended
Small Waters by Amanda Gascoyne
Judge's comment: ‘Delicate, evocative and strong images.’
Commended
The Minister Speaks by Helen Kay
Judge's comment: ‘Good use of satire and broken lines, enabling rhetoric to also carry image and unsettling rupture.’
Shortlisted:
Where the waters meet – Mary Anne Smith Sellen
Of candlefish and liberation – Marion Oxley
River Call Back To The Sea – Maggie Harris
Geometry – Andrew Larner
Speaking of rivers – Derek Sellen
Longlisted:
Water Memories – Setareh Ebrahimi
On the banks of the Yangtze – Bethany Pope
Yare Falling: Drought as an invasive species – Jonny Croose
Allied with Madness (Leonard to Virginia Woolf) – Mary Anne Smith Sellen
Minnows – Rebecca Gethin
Eels – Rebecca Gethin
The river as – Lee Campbell
Mother Medway – Harry Shearer
With a lunge – Sarah Leavesley
Waters Known and Unknown – Penny Blackburn
Be like water, Lamorna – Vivienne Tregenza
Clean Water – Nichola Rivers
Beck – Lisa Kelly
Job’s Ferry, Eastham Park, UK – Helen Kay
Ivory – Barnaby Harsent
Anguilla Anguilla – Sarah Tait
Wantsum-Time – Sarah Tait
The day the canoe overturned – Zelda Cahill-Patten
The winning poems: (We have used low resolution images so that it's harder to use to train the robots. We know this isn't good for accessibility. If you are a human and you'd like to read the poem in a different format, then please email us. Click on the poem to enlarge it.)
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