Panic atomised us as we ran.
Backs against the sun
abandoning the blossoms,
we went home
and stayed there for a while.
Hidden from the eyes of Time,
who peeps
through the arrow-slits
and whose embrasures
swallow us whole
A short walk
but worlds away -
absence intensifies the longing
dilutes memories,
and coaxes them into dust
so that
like bricks,
they might be replaced,
recomposed in newness
and crumbling Tudor redness
Set them in the stone
and keep them in your walls
until we may walk atop them once more
among the crenellations
the palisades
and the parapets;
treading the phantom walkways,
the earth tones and the umber
set against ghosts of lyres and lutes
now out of tune
I long for nervous heights
to muse
upon the nettles
which gather on green meadows
the way cow-parsley sprawls from the umbel;
reaching upwards,
rising through the tangled undergrowth,
from the dungeon to the dreaming-tower
as we unfurl,
renewed
- Amy Bessent
Image by Peregrine Bush
Student New Angle Prize
The Student New Angle Prize is a competition partnered with the New Angle Prize for Literature, a national book award for published authors. SNAP is an annual event and offers all students of the University of Suffolk the chance to enter by submitting 500 words of original writing as prose or poetry. Like the New Angle Prize, all entries must either be set in or clearly influenced by our East Anglian region.
The SNAP competition gives offers a chance to hear new voices in the region and encourages students to add to the literary representations of the region which continue to make East Anglia such an important place for art and literature and poetry. Every year a different judge is invited to join the panel. For this year the judge is honorary graduate, novelist and actress Esther Freud.
Twelve writers from courses across the University have been longlisted for the SNAP Writing Awards 2021. The shortlist will be announced on 10th March. The winner and runner up will be announced 19th March.
If you are interested in writing, why not consider our BA(Hons) English Literature with Creative Writing or MA in Creative and Critical Writing?
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