Renard Press has announced the shortlist for their Building Bridges Anthology.
Gerald Ewa and Raina Muriithi are among the talented poets whose exceptional poems earned them an entry in the upcoming anthology.
In no particular order, here are the gifted poets who made the shortlist:
- ‘A Calculated Step’ by Oz Hardwick
- ‘A Man in a Bowler Hat’ by Steve Baggs
- ‘Advice to Interviewers from an Autistic Candidate’ by Creana Bosac
- ‘Almost’ by Heinrich Beindorf
- ‘Antici-’ by Jules the Poet
- ‘Art Form’ by Koushik Banerjea
- ‘As the Last Song Begins to Play’ by Thea Smiley
- ‘Behind Closed Doors’ by Mark Lavery
- ‘Birds and Bones all Live in Houses’ by Yukti Narang
- ‘Blood and Soil’ by Rebecca G. Biber
- ‘Bug at Duckpool’ by Dulani Kulasinghe
- ‘Care Givers on a Break in a Café’ by Sheena Hussain
- ‘Collide: Astrophysics in the Time of Genocide by Bombing (and all Other Times)’ by Ivy Raff
- ‘Dragon Lines’ by Dave Wynne-Jones
- ‘Early Risers Constellation’ by Pippa Little
- ‘Feet under the Brontë Falls’ by LJ Ireton
- ‘God Talks’ by Ansuya
- ‘Holding on’ by Emily Reynolds
- ‘I am not Bear Grylls’ by Daphne Sampson
- ‘I Have Heard that in Some Languages’ by Tim Kiely
- ‘In the Kitchen of the World’ by Gerald Ewa
- ‘Interns at Fertility Clinic’ by Kinshuk Gupta
- ‘Legends of the Sun: A Hybrid Ghazal of Migration’ by Hana Ormara
- ‘Memoria’ by Delilah Dennett
- ‘Memories of Matriarchal Days’ by Geetha Nair G.
- ‘Mumbai’s New Bridge’ by Suchita Parikh-Mundul
- ‘My Boy’s Blood’ by Raina Muriithi
- ‘My Mother’s Tongue’ by Victoria D’Cruz
- ‘My Uncle Said We all Needed Someone to Remember that We Lived’ by María Castro Domínguez
- ‘No Apologies’ by Rachel Burns
- ‘Others Meanwhile Are Neurodivergent’ by Alyson Smith
- ‘Our Lady Star of the Sea’ by Alice Eaves
- ‘Queer Skin’ by Linnea
- ‘Riptide’ by Sujatha
- ‘SARA’ by Jaspreet Mander
- ‘Settle over Satiate’ by Kay Saunders
- ‘Sources for the History of Bhutan’ by Sekhar Banerjee
- ‘The Allotment Pharmacy’ by Carl Griffin
- ‘The Bride of Arta’ by Deborah Finding
- ‘The Guests We Make’ by Devjani Bodepudi
- ‘The House of Refugees’ by Bridgette James
- ‘The Second Time’ by Max Wallis
- ‘This Is Tree Time’ by Jane Burn
- ‘To an Ally’ by Suman Gujral
- ‘Transcript: Interview Room 2’ by Abigail Ottley
- ‘Umbellifers’ by Christian Ward
- ‘We Had a Caravan’ by Laila Sumpton
- ‘What If I Had a Homeland?’ by Musa Abdalahmad
- ‘When I Open the Paper’ by Reyzl Grace
- ‘When You Give a Plant to a Teacher’ by Alison Binney
Building Bridges is a poetry anthology that seeks to provide a platform for stories and voices that have been marginalised, and to celebrate the great diversity and rich variation in the identities and communities of people from around the world and from a huge cross-section of walks of life.
Renard Press is an award-winning independent publisher, launched in June 2020. Covering both classic and contemporary titles, Renard publishes fiction and non-fiction, theatre and poetry; the emphasis is on good writing, properly edited, and our books can be found in convenient modern formats – in a world increasingly lived online – as well as in beautifully designed and well-produced editions.
The winner will be awarded £200, and the runner up will be awarded £100
All of the poems on the shortlist will be published in a volume, everyone included will receive a copy of the book, and will be invited to take part in an online launch event.
Congratulations to Gerald, Raina, and all the poets who made the shortlist!
Visit the website to view the longlist as well as essential information regarding the anthology.
Bongiwe T. Maphosa
Bongiwe Maphosa is a writer whose fiction and poetry offers fresh, imaginative perspectives on the human condition. Her work has been published in prominent literary spaces, including Isele Magazine, Akowdee Magazine, the AVBOB Poetry Anthology, Journal of African Youth in Literature (JAY Lit), and more. She was also nominated for the 2025 Best of the Net Anthology. Bongiwe is one of six writers selected for the inaugural Caine Prize Online Editing program and serves as a content writer, peer reviewer, and tier three awards judge for JAYLit. Bridging inner reflection with speculative worlds, she continues to carve out a distinctive voice within contemporary African literature for a growing global audience.
