English and Creative Writing lecturer Rory Waterman shortlisted for the prestigious Ledbury Forte Prize for second poetry collections

Subject area: English, history and philosophy
Category: Staff; School of Arts and Humanities

Rory has been shortlisted for his collection Sarajevo Roses, published by Carcanet in 2017.

Rory Waterman

Dr Rory Waterman, senior lecturer in English and Creative Writing, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Ledbury Forte Poetry Prize for Second Collections, part of Ledbury Poetry Festival. The prize aims to support and encourage ‘mid-career’ poets, with the winner receiving a prize of £5,000.

This year the prize will be judged by Lachlan Mackinnon and Linda Gregerson, with the shortlisted poets invited to read at a Prize Giving event this July at Ledbury Poetry Festival. The prize is the first of its kind, and recognises the risks associated with a poet’s second collection.

Sarajevo Roses is Rory Waterman’s second collection of poems. The collection surrounds a ‘poet on the move’ in Mediterranean Europe, following the poet through Venice, Krujë, Craco and Vatican City, whilst twinning these images with his former hometown, Lincoln. Rory’s debut poetry collection, Tonight the Summer’s Over (Carcanet, 2013), is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Prize 2014.

Rory Waterman is a senior lecturer in English and Creative Writing, lecturing on BA (Hons) English, MRes English Literary Research and leading MA Creative Writing. He also supervises PhD students working in and on modern and contemporary literature. He co-edits New Walk Editions, which publishes poetry pamphlets by major and new poets, and which developed from New Walk magazine, an international arts publication, which he founded with Nicholas Everett at the University of Leicester in 2010.