John Foggin has done it again, winning this year’s £1,000 McLellan poetry prize, judged by Simon Armitage, with his poem, ‘Bheinn na Caillich’. 

In 2014 John won the Plough and Camen/Lumen prizes, both judged by Sir Andrew Motion. In 2015 he won the Plough prize again, for the second year running – judge this time Liz Lochhead - and has now added the McLellan prize to his sequence of wins.

Other successes in the last two years include first prize in the Red Shed competition (2014) and the Red Shed again, Wakefield postcode (2015); second prize in Ilkley literature festival’s competition (2014);  third prize in the Havant competition in 2014, and second in that competition in 2015; and second in the Poetry Business Yorkshire prize, judged by Billy Collins.

The McLellan prizegiving was in the Little Rock café, on the seafront at Brodick on the Isle of Arran, as part of the annual McLellan arts festival. John said: “I go to prize-giving do’s and I ALWAYS feel guilty. I’ve heard runners up and commended poets read their stuff and thought: Jeez ... why didn’t that win? I wish I could do that (whatever it is).”

Despite his modesty, he has clearly acquired the winning knack. So what’s his secret? His reply? “No idea. Except to say that you have to be in it to win it.”

Is the identity of the judge an important factor? “I will enter a competition because of the idea that a poem will be read by a poet I respect and admire. That’s worth a fiver, whatever happens. So yes, to a degree, the identity of the judge is probably an important factor. I like the buzz, too. It’s the buzz of buying a lottery ticket.”

He added: “It’s more fun than sending off submissions, which often have a longer turnaround. I have a much worse success rate with submissions. One magazine I particularly like has turned me down four times in a row. There you go. Sometimes I enter a competition because I like a cause it supports. And I enter comps I’ve won before as a sort of thank-you. In every case, we know that entry fees support poetry. Win-win. I’ve looked at my winning poems and they have nothing in common that I can see, except that I wrote them.”

His final word: “A sort of tip, perhaps. Don’t waste your time second-guessing the judges. Send your best stuff. Nuff said.”

John lives in Ossett, West Yorkshire. He has been a teacher, lecturer and LEA adviser for drama and English, and has an MA in creative writing from the University of Leeds. His first pamphlet collection,  Running out of Space, was published in April 2014, a second one, Backtracks, in July 2014, and his chapbook, Larach, was published by Ward Wood in November 2014.

On his blog he pays tribute to a residential writing course run by Kim Moore and Carola Luther earlier this year, writer Robert Macfarlane’s book The Old Ways, and “Ann and Peter Sansom who have taught me how to wring every last ounce out of a writing day”.  

You can read ‘Bheinn na Caillich’ on John’s blog here