2011 Winners

Gavin Salisbury

Gavin Salisbury's publications include: Gravity's End (Hilltop Press, 1997), Europa (Sam’s Dot Publishing, 2004) and The Mouths That Remain (Sam’s Dot Publishing, 2007), all chapbooks of ‘speculative’ poetry; Virtual Landmarks (Flarestack Publishing, 2004), a collection of ‘mainstream’ poetry; and Foreign Parts (D Press, 2004), a chapbook collection of short stories. His first full-length collection of short stories, The Far Sense, appeared from Sam's Dot in October 2010. A science-fiction novella, Junction 5, appeared recently in the anthology Panverse Three from Panverse Publishing. Gavin is currently aiming to write more poetry, having concentrated on fiction over the last few years.

For more information on Gavin’s writing, art and music, please visit his website at http://gavin-salisbury.com.

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Elinor Brooks

Elinor Brooks grew up in Edinburgh and now lives in Wiltshire. She studied at York University and teaches English and Creative Writing in a college of FE. Her poems have won several prizes and have appeared in anthologies, on the Big Screen and even on an adshel. This year she was accepted as a 'fledgling' member of the national network of women poets, 'Word Birds'. As an active member of Swindon’s BlueGate Poets, Elinor has enjoyed writing in collaborative projects with local artists and musicians. She recently read at Cheltenham Poetry Festival alongside Mimi Khalvati, as part of Blue Gate's Travellers Without Baggage performance. A recurrent theme in her poems is the imprint left in places by events that have happened there. Since being widowed, she has also explored themes of loss, bereavement and continuity.

A few of her poems can be read at http://thewordbirds.wordpress.com/read-our-poems/elinor-brooks/
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Janice Booth

I’ve been involved in lecturing and practising Chinese medicine for the last 22 years and its underlying philosophy is often a prompt to my creativity. I also draw on family memories of growing up in East Anglia, trying painstakingly to capture those evasive memories and moments in time and thereby make them endure! And whilst I like to make harmony and order, the words I choose often touch the unruliness of emotion, the impossibility of stemming the flow of time.
Becoming a member of the Swindon Bluegate poetry group has proved an invaluable stimulus and support to my writing over the last 12 months.

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Heather O'Neill

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Michael Scott

Michael is a poet from Swindon and he knows it. Hear it in his own words: "I am a writer and poet from Swindon. I have performed all over the country but some of my favorite places are ;

Swindon Arts Centre
Hebden Bridge
Cheltenham Poetry Cafe
Poetry Cafe Covent Garden
Corsham Pound Arts Centre
Reading Poetry Cafe

I have run adult poetry workshops in Swindon and Bristol and work as a Koestler Trust mentor enabling a recently released offender to access local arts organisations and events. In 2011, I co-edited Domestic Cherry, a new women's poetry annual. I am also co-editing the 2012 Domestic Cherry and its brother title Builders Tea.

In 1964 I was born, some of my poems are about this
in 1999 I spent 6 months in rehab, some of my poems are about this.
in 2000 I went to live in Peru, some of my poems are about this
in 2004 my son was born, some of my poems are about him
I think that poetry is for everyone not a snobby elite


I won the 2011 Battered Moons Poetry Prize
I was placed second in the Irish 'Poets Meet Painters' Competition in 2011

My first pamphlet called 'Sick of Ape' is available from my website at

www.themichaelscott.co.uk "

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Linda Snell
Linda says: “I'm co-founder of Corsham Poetry Society, which runs monthly 'open mic' sessions.
I have had poems published in Envoi, Equinox, Iota, The Interpreter's House & Obsessed with Pipework.
I won the Wiltshire county poetry comp, and was short-listed in the Grace Dieu comp in 2010. This year I won the Calne literary poetry prize & was short-listed in the international Live Canon poetry comp.
Last year I organized a poetry reading in the Pound Arts Centre auditorium & was joint MC. And I have just MC'd the 'erotica' set in Swindon at an event run by BlueGate poets.
I am very much interested in the sound of the spoken word - & in the quality of the presentation given by the poet in a live arena”.



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