24 March 2025
A poem inspired by the writer's experience missing her son after he moved from the UK to Australia has won this year's £5,000 National Poetry CompetitionAnnual poetry prize run by the UK-based Poetry Society established in 1978; accepts entries from all over the world; over 10,000 poems submitted each year.
Fiona Larkin's poem, Absence has a grammar, was picked from nearly 22,000 entries.
"It feels a bit like a lottery win, because the odds are so high," said Larkin. When she got the call with the news, she felt both a "sense of disbelief" and "weirdly buoyant - that floating sense of something happening".
Fiona Larkin's poem uses Finnish grammar to explore her feelings about her son's move from the UK to Brisbane
