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Kent student named Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year

One of the University of Kent’s pioneering graduates has been named Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year at an award ceremony last week.

Moyra Tourlamain started studying English and American Literature at Kent in 1965 and recently returned to study at the University’s School of English in 2009.

Moyra, who is now studying for an MA in Creative Writing, was awarded the Festival Poet of the Year honour at a ceremony at Canterbury’s Dominican Priory on Thursday 7 October for her poem 'Drinking Coffee by the Door'.

She said: It's nerve-wracking to take your work out into the public forum, so it's a huge boost to know the poem worked. This award means I will go on daring to reach out. I'm enormously grateful for the encouragement of the judges - and to the people who put so much into making the competition happen.’

Patricia Debney, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University’s School of English, said: Moyra’s success is hugely well deserved. She is a gifted, modest poet with true promise – the real deal, in other words. May this accolade be the first of many!’

Over 150 entries were submitted for this year’s competition. Thirty-seven poems made the judges’ shortlist and have been included in a poetry booklet.

Priced at £3, it is available from the Canterbury Festival Office, Christ Church Gate, The Precincts.

The judges were Maggie Harris, Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 2009 and Associate Creative Writing Lecturer at the University, and Dorothy Fryd, and Nick Hunt, members of the Canterbury Festival Friends Committee who founded the competition in 2007.

Contact: pressoffice@kent.ac.uk

Story published at 11:31am 14 October 2010