Cyprus Well Stories was invited to the Bridport Prize 2008 celebrations and we had a wonderful time. The anthology of winners is brilliant, and is available now at www.bridportprize.org.uk.
One poem really stood out for us personally, and that was 'Finistere' by Elizabeth Speller. In fact we think it's beautiful, so Elizabeth is our Poet of the Month for December.
Elizabeth Speller lives in Gloucestershire. She reads Classics as a mature student at Lucy Cavendish Colledge, Cambridge University, and held a Hosking Houses Residency in 2008. She has written for publications as diverse as The Big Issue, New Statesman, Sunday Times, Independent, Financial Times and Vogue, has published four non-fiction books and her poetry appears in anthologies. She used her own words with those of Milton and Shakespeare in a libretto, 'Farewell', composed by Michael Berkeley and commissioned by Paul McCartney for his wife, Linda. This year she has been a winner in both the Ledbury and Bridport prizes. Her first novel, Death of an Unknown Warrior will be published by Virago in 2009.
We hope you like this poem as much as we do, and we'd like to thank Frances and Lindsay and all at the Bridport Prize and Bridport Arts Centre for looking after us so well!
