Poetry Society awards new work

The Poetry Society awarded two of the nation's writers this week at the National Poetry Competition.

Taking the top prize was novelist and poet Helen Dunmore, who was awarded £5,000 for her poem The Malarkey.

On winning the prize, she said at the event at London's Savile Club: 'I've written very few poems over the past four years ... but now I have the feeling that there is the kernel of a new collection. It is a great boost to receive the prize – a confirmation.'

Ms Dunmore has in the past won prizes for her literary work including the inaugural Orange Prize for Fiction for A Spell of Winter.

This year marked the inaugural year for a new prize, the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, founded by Carol Ann Duffy (pictured).

The prize recognises a UK poet who is judged to have made the most exciting contribution to poetry in the past twelve months.

Alice Oswald won the £5,000 prize for her collection Weeds and Wildflowers.