ANTHONY WATTS has been writing ‘seriously’ for nearly 50 years. He has had poems published in many magazines and anthologies in addition to five published collections: Strange Gold (KQBX Press, 1991), The Talking Horses of Dreams (Iron Press, 1999), Steart Point & Other Poems (John Garland, 2009), The Shell Gatherer (Oversteps, 2011) and Stiles (Paekakariki Press, 2019).
He has won the Bedford International Writing Competition 2019, Four Counties Poetry Competition 2015, Lake Aske Memorial Award 1978, the Michael Johnson Memorial Prize 1979, Poetry Pulse Poetry Competition 2015, the S.T. Coleridge Memorial Poetry Prize 2008 and first prizes in competitions run by Rotherham Metro Writers (2001), Preston Writers Guild (2001 & 2002), Christchurch Writers (1993, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2007), Norwich Writers (2008), East Coker Poetry Group (2008), Dillington Poets (1994), Mungrisedale Writers (2013), Poetry Space (2013), Somerset Libraries (2013), Wax Poetry and Art (2017) and the Writers Bureau Limerick Competition (2016).
He was also longlisted in the Arvon Foundation Competition (19820 and the National Poetry Competition (2015). His poems have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Somerset Sound.
Rural Somerset has been his home for most of his life and he has no plans to leave it. His main interests in life are poetry, music, binge thinking and messing about outdoors – activities he finds can be happily combined.
Links to a selection of Anthony’s poems
Butterfly Hill
Exmoor
Invasion
The Hardy-Lovers
The River…
Unawares