The winners of the Keats-Shelley prize for essays and poems have been announced at a ceremony that saw Damian Lewis and Helen McCory perform a reimagining of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
The Homeland actor, who is hotly tipped to be the next James Bond, said it was still important to celebrate the influence of Mary Shelley – but admitted his own poetry writing skills were lacking.
“Oh God no. I’m interested in romantic poetry but I don’t dabble myself,” Lewis said. “I’m dreadful.”
McCory said: “If anything cures you of writing ambitions, it’s performing Shakespeare and the like.”
The seven winners, who came from the UK, the US and Singapore, submitted works on the theme “After Frankenstein”.
Will Kemp took the poetry prize with Driving to Work at 5am Listening to Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, while Michael Allen won the essay prize with an examination of the ways Keats treats beauty, A Distant Idea of Proximity.
The recipient of the Young Romantics prize for poetry – open only to under 18s – was 16-year-old Riona Millar with her Sonnet After Frankenstein, while 17-year-old Sofia Bening won the Young Romantics essay prize.
McCory also spoke about her first encounter with Shelley’s pioneering novel. “I first read Frankenstein when I was 14, if I’m honest principally because it was so short – I was one of those teenagers. But it remains one of my favourite novels,” she said.
The inspiration for Shelley to write Frankenstein came during a stay in Switzerland with the poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Byron in the summer of 1816. The weather was so wet that the group spent most of their time indoors, and, with little else to do, began telling each other ghost stories. Shelley’s horror story of a scientist who could create life went on to form the basis of her classic novel.
McCrory said that even with today’s modern distractions making such an isolated escape difficult, some things still hadn’t changed in since 1814. “We’ve still got the weather and the drugs” she said.
The Peaky Blinders actor said that while it may not take the traditional form favoured by Keats, Byron and Shelley, the popularity of spoken word and street poetry meant “there is no question that poetry is alive and well in London”.
The winners, who received prizes with a total value of £4,000, were announced by the chair of the jury, the biographer Richard Holmes.
The 2016 Keats-Shelley winners for poetry
Will Kemp, from Tadcaster: first prize for Driving to Work at 5am Listening to Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Nigel Prentice, from Kenilworth: second prize for The Simulation
Riona Millar, aged 16, from London: first prize young Romantics for Sonnet After Frankenstein
Harry Jenkins, aged 17, from Warwick: second prize Young Romantics for Prometheus 3.0
The 2016 Keats-Shelley winner for essays
Michael Allen, from Cambridge, Massachusetts: first prize for A Distant Idea of Proximity: How Keats Handled Beauty
Andrew Raven from Preston: Second Prize for: In the Archives with Lamb, Shelley and D’Israeli: Romantic Attitudes to Literary Manuscripts and Draft Materials
Sofia Bening, from Singapore, aged 17: prize young Romantics for The Stuff that Romantic Dreams are Made Of
