Rendy Woby

As my own attempts at poetry are fearfully dread if not actively offensive to the medium itself, it gives me great pleasure to write about the workings of my sister’s woman-mind; she being a hundred times the writer and possessed of a pen which is more scalpel than biro.

Anyway, Sarah is a poet who won a place on this year’s Arts Council Escalator scheme, who has been published by Templar, and whose work has been admired by Carol Ann Duffy, Ruth Padel and now, Jo Shapcott (which makes quite a triumvirate if you like people who can make words bend, and I do, Jo says the bit about ‘tour de force’ above and is President of The Poetry Society).

This week Sarah’s poem Oedema won 2nd prize in the annual, national Mxlexia Poetry Competition, which is especially brilliant in part because all work is submitted anonymously; but also because she has won it before (2009), as well as being a runner-up in 2008. I say all this because Sarah is not quite the show-offy dick with a pointless blog that I am. And, of course, because it makes me very, very happy. 

I reproduce part of Jo Shapcott’s judge’s essay above - if you click on the text you can click through to read Sarah’s poem in all its dizzy and dark glory. I am immensely proud, that is some arrangement of letters.