Warwick Alumnus wins Beverly Series Prize for Poetry Collection

Warwick’s Creative Writing alumnus Sohini Basak has been awarded the prestigious Beverly Series prize for her poetry collection We Live in the Newness of Small Differences.

Sohini graduated from the university’s MA in Writing in 2013. She was taught by Professor David Morley, winner of the Ted Hughes Award. Morley offered high praise for the student, stating that “her use of language, line and image always surprised and delighted… It is no surprise therefore that she gone on to achieve great things.”

It is no surprise that she gone on to achieve great things

Sohini’s poetry and fiction have appeared in several literary journals including Suburban Review, Helter Skelter and 3:AM Magazine. In addition, she won second prize at the inaugural RædLeaf India Poetry Prize in 2013 and was shortlisted for the Melita Hume and the Jane Martin poetry prizes in 2014. Furthermore, Sohini was a 2015-2016 fellow of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective.

The Beverly Series is open to original manuscripts in any genre by writers working in the English language. In 2016 the series received a wide range of submissions from writers in over thirteen countries.

This book’s publication will mark the emergence of a powerful new voice in the poetry world

Kelly Davio, the final judge for the 2016 Beverly series said that ‘Sohini Basak’s We Live in the Newness of Small Differences is an impressive collection with a controlled voice, an attention to musicality, a beautiful execution of the craft, and a playful sense of the elasticity and possibility of the line”.

He asserted that he has “no doubt this book’s publication will mark the emergence of a powerful new voice in the poetry world”.

Professor Morley expressed his belief that “The winning of this prestigious prize and the publication of [Sohini’s] first collection is an inspiration to student-poets at Warwick.”