Lisa Bickmore Wins the Top Prize in the Ballymaloe International Poetry Contest

Lisa Bickmore, an associate professor of English at Salt Lake Community College in Utah, has won the first prize of $10,000 in the Ballymaloe International Poetry Contest, sponsored by the Irish literary magazine The Moth. Professor Bickmore’s award-winning poem, “Eidolon,” has been published in the spring issue of The Moth. The winning poem, which is more than 700 words, was chosen from 3,000 entries by 2,000 different poets.

The judge of the Ballymaloe International Poetry Contest, Michael Symmons Roberts, commented, “Eidolon is an extended meditation on separation and love and grief. Reading this poem feels like eavesdropping on someone trying to come to terms with distance and loneliness. It’s a finely made formal poem, but the voice remains limber and feels capable of taking you anywhere.”

Bickmore has published a collection of poetry entitled Haste (Signature Press, 1994). At Salt Lake Community College she teaches composition, creative writing, and writing studies courses. Bickmore has been on the faculty at the college since 1992.

Bickmore holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in English from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.