A CUMBRIAN writer has won a distinguished poetry prize.

Claire Askew, 35, from Carlisle, won the Gerard Rochford Poetry Prize for 2021 with her poem, 'Wetheral'.

Dr Wayne Price, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen selected the winners from the final shortlist.

He said: "It has been a huge honour to judge the Gerard Rochford Poetry Prize 2021. I'm sure Gerard would have been delighted with the wonderful standard of entries.

"The shortlisted poems were a pleasure and privilege to read, re-read and think deeply about. I thought there were several on the shortlist that might easily make the final three.

"But, after revisiting each poem many times, I selected a winner and two runners-up that kept revealing new subtleties to me.

"In particular, I came back time and again to the carefully paced and precisely observed poem, Wetheral."

Ms Askew wins £150 and a large, bespoke commemorative plate featuring an excerpt of Gerard Rochford’s poetry.

Her works include a creative writing guide, an award-winning novel, and two poetry collections.

Claire holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh, and has been a Scottish Book Trust Reading Champion, a Jessie Kesson Fellow and the University of Edinburgh's Writer in Residence.

The competition was established in memory of distinguished Aberdeen poet Gerard Rochford.

It invited writers from across the globe to submit an original poem on the theme of 'Family'.