Five titles are contenders for first collection prize
The shortlist for this year’s Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection prize has been announced, chosen by judges Imtiaz Dharker, Robert Seatter (chair) and Anthony Wilson. The shortlisted books are: Bright Travellers by Fiona Benson (Cape); Moontide by Niall Campbell (Bloodaxe); My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards (Seren); Division Street by Helen Mort (Chatto & Windus); Self-Portrait with the Happiness by David Tait (Smith/Doorstop Books). The winner will be announced at the festival’s opening main reading – on Friday 7 November at 8.30pm – and he or she will receive £2,500, a week of paid “protected” writing time in 2015 on the Suffolk coast, plus a fee-paying invitation to read at next year’s Aldeburgh poetry festival.