Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry for the year 2006

Buckingham Palace press releases

THE QUEEN'S GOLD MEDAL FOR POETRY 2006
24 April 2006

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN

Her Majesty has been pleased to approve the award of The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry for the year 2006 to Fleur Adcock.

Biography of the winner
Fleur Adcock was born in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1934, but spent much of her childhood (including the war years) in England, where she has lived since 1963. In addition to her own poems, she has published translations of Romanian and medieval Latin poetry, and has edited several anthologies. She became FRSL in 1984 and was awarded the OBE in 1996. Her Poems 1960-2000 received widespread critical acclaim.

History of the Gold Medal for Poetry
The Gold Medal for Poetry was instituted by King George V in 1933 at the suggestion of the then Poet Laureate, John Masefield.

Recommendations for the award of the Medal are made by a committee of eminent men and women of letters, under the chairmanship of the Poet Laureate (Professor Andrew Motion).

The Medal is given for a book of verse published by someone from the United Kingdom or a Commonwealth realm. The obverse of the medal bears the crowned effigy of The Queen. The idea of the reverse, which was designed by the late Edmund Dulac, is "Truth is emerging from her well and holding in her right hand the divine flame of inspiration - Beauty is truth and Truth Beauty".

Media information
Miss Adcock will be presented with the medal by The Queen at Buckingham Palace on 7 June 2006.

For further information about Miss Adcock please contact Christine Macgregor at Bloodaxe Books (email: publicity@bloodaxebooks.com; tel: 01434 240500).

Previous recipients of The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry:

1934 Laurence Whistler
1936 W H Auden
1940 Michael Thwaites
1952 Andrew Young
1953 Arthur Waley
1954 Ralph Hodgson
1955 Ruth Pitter
1956 Edmund Blunden
1957 Siegfried Sassoon
1959 Frances Cornford
1960 John Betjeman
1962 Christopher Fry
1963 William Plomer
1964 R S Thomas
1965 Philip Larkin
1967 Charles Causley
1968 Robert Graves
1969 Stevie Smith
1970 Roy Fuller
1971 Sir Stephen Spender
1973 John Heath-Stubbs
1974 Ted Hughes
1977 Norman Nicholson
1981 D J Enright
1986 Norman MacCaig
1988 Derek Walcott
1989 Allen Curnow
1990 Sorley Maclean
1991 Judith Wright
1992 Kathleen Raine
1996 Peter Redgrove
1998 Les Murray
2000 Edwin Morgan
2001 Michael Longley
2002 Peter Porter
2003 U A Fanthorpe
2004 Hugo Williams

ENDS

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