CityLife

Glamour at the Gala

Imtiaz Dharker

IF you happen to notice the city's intellectual quotient increase this coming week, it's no surprise - the global literati have finally descended for the Literature Festival.

The festival opened with prestige and more than a touch of glamour at the Royal Northern College of Music last night (October 16), with the announcement of the inaugural winner of the country's biggest poetry award.

Founded by the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, the Manchester Poetry Prize honours talent in the field on the strength of a selection of anonymously submitted and unpublished works.

Intimidating prospect  

The judges this year comprised an esteemed panel of poets, Carol Ann Duffy, Gillian Clarke and Imtiaz Dharker, who were faced with the intimidating prospect of over a thousand entries.
 

To accompany the glory, the winner of the competition receives a cheque for £10,000, a hefty sum for a profession which is more often an unpaid labour of love.  

As a separate award, namely the Manchester Young Writer of the Year, a bursary is also offered to study at the Writing School and further the development of a gifted writer.
 

Prior to the opening of the golden envelope the audience were treated to readings from the three panelists and six short-listed finalists, Mike Barlow, Mandy Coe, Allison McVety, Helen Mort, Lesley Saunders and Rosie Shepperd.
 

Remarkable mixture  

Carol Ann Duffy reminded us why she is the country's foremost poet, reading four pieces from 1999 collection The World's Wife. Readings from Clarke and Dharker brought us from the beaches of Wales to bustling Lahore, setting an intimidating literary standard for the finalists to follow.
 

Fortunately the calibre of the competition was extremely high, the themes ranging through war, Roman assassinations, typewriters, maps and love, the voices a remarkable mixture of the sensuous, sad, funny and sweetly evocative, giving the audience the briefest of insights into the mammoth task it surely was in selecting a winner.
 

But select winners they did, the writing bursary being given to youngest finalist, Helen Mort, in recognition of her vibrant, heartfelt and sophisticated writing.  

Thriving state  

'I can't think of anything more joyful than to hand money to poets,' said a beaming Gillian Clarke before announcing the joint winners of the 2008 Manchester Poetry Prize to be Mandy Coe and Lesley Saunders.
 

The event was a sound confirmation of the thriving state of British poetry, not to mention Manchester as a city in which to nurture it. A terrific start to the festival at large.

Now for next year's Manchester Fiction Prize …