JEAN Stevens from Settle is one of just ten writers highly commended in this year’s Bridport Prize international poetry competition.
Her poem 'Skeleton' was selected from over 5,400 entries by poetry judge Patience Agbabi.
The Bridport Prize, based in Dorset, is one of the most prestigious open writing competitions in the English language with categories in poetry, short stories, flash fiction and the Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a first novel.
This year almost 13,000 writers from 80 countries competed for one of the 34 winner and highly commended awards.
Jean is a poet and playwright, whose poems have been published in numerous magazines, newspapers and anthologies and broadcast on BBC Radios Three and Four.
She has won the Yorkshire Post Poetry Prize and Leeds Libraries Writing Prize, and her plays have been performed at Derby Playhouse, Edinburgh Festival, Harrogate Theatre, Leeds Grand Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse.
In addition to teaching Creative Writing in schools, colleges and top security prisons, she has also worked as an actor and has numerous credits for stage, screen and radio.
An anthology of this year’s winning entries, including Jean’s poem, is available from the Bridport Prize website at bridportprize.org.uk
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here