Poet, Writer & Artist Jay Bernard Wins Ted Hughes Award for Multimedia Performance

This week, The Guardian announced this year's winner of the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry: writer and interdisciplinary artist Jay Bernard, for their performance "Surge: Side A, a multimedia sequence which explores the 1981 New Cross fire." "The £5,000 prize is given to the poet 'who has made the most exciting contribution to poetry', putting published collections alongside live performance, installations and radio pieces," writes Richard Lea. About Bernard:

Bernard switches between the raw horror of the unfolding tragedy, writing: “Voices ah call seh dem haffi get out / “Screamin begin an di people ah shout”, and the scene outside, where “The flash of the photographer / leaves hot white / wherever the world looks: // they twist back her arm / handcuff her and lift her to her feet / pull back her snarling face for the press // We watch”.

According to one of the judges, Sally Beamish, what most impressed the panel about Bernard’s performance was “the honesty, the vulnerability and the fact it was so intensely personal”.

Read on at The Guardian.