Writing Awards
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Distinction in Creative Writing (MSt) Oxford University Artist Residency at deFeniks Theater, Belgium supported by the British Arts Council Oxford Poetry Library Book of the Month for 'how to extricate yourself' 2022 Arthur Welton Award Society of Authors Grant 2022 Forward Prize Nomination for 'a poem in which I use the word 'betoken' for the first time in my life' 2021 Elgin Award Nomination for 'how to extricate yourself' 2023 Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize (Joint Winner) 2023 Poets and Players Prize judged by Philip Gross (Winner) 2021 EAL Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize judged by Will Harris (Winner) 2022 Live Canon Collection Competition (Winner) 2020 Mogford Short Story Prize, judged by Stephen Fry and Prue Leith (Winner) 2020 Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize, judged by Paul McGrane (Winner) 2017 AM Heath Prize (Winner) 2018 Hammond House International Literary Award for Poetry (Winner) 2018 Short Story Prize by Curtis Bausse (Winner) 2021 Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge - March (Winner) 2023 Welshpool Poetry Prize (2nd Prize) 2021 Mairtín Crawford Award for Short Story (Runner-Up) 2021 Mairtín Crawford Award for Poetry (Runner-Up) 2020 Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition, judged by Kathy Fish (Runner-Up) 2020 Wirral Poetry Festival Competition (Runner-Up) 2020 Charroux Poetry Prize (Runner-Up) 2023 Globe Soup Drabble (Runner-Up) 2020/2021 Ó Bhéal Five Words Competition (Third Place) 2020 Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize (Highly Commended) 2020 Acumen International Poetry Competition (Highly Commended) 2022 Chad Walsh Chapbook Prize (Honorable Mention) 2022 Hippocrates Prize (Commendation) 2022 Winchester Poetry Prize judged by Jo Bell (Commendation) 2021 Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest (Honorable Mention) 2022 Globe Soup Short Story Prize (Honorable Mention) 2022 Wildfire Words Poetry Competition (Highly Commended) 2022 Shelley Memorial Poetry Competition (Highly Commended) SHORTLISTS/FINALIST 2023 Dylan Thomas Poetry Prize (Shortlist) 2023 O Bhéal Five Words Competition (Shortlist) 2023 Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize (Shortlist) 2022 Women Poets’ Prize funded by the Rebecca Swift Foundation (Shortlist) 2022 Magma Pamphlet Competition judged by Alycia Pirmohamed (Shortlist) 2022 Bridport Prize (Short Story and Flash Fiction Shortlist) 2022 Cinnamon Press Poetry Pamphlet Award (Shortlist) 2022 Ó Bhéal Five Words Competition (Shortlist) 2022 Wildfire Words Poetry Prize (Shortlist) 2022 Blackness on Sea Poetry Prize (Shortlist) 2022 Briefly Write Poetry Prize (Shortlist) 2021 Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize (Shortlist) 2021 Aesthetica Creative Writing Award (Shortlist) 2021 Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize (Single Poem) (Shortlist) 2021 Coppice Prize (Shortlist) 2020 Live Canon International Poetry Award, judged by Mona Arshi (Shortlist) 2020 Parkinson's Art International Poetry Competition (Judge's Commendation and Shortlist) 2019 Live Canon International Poetry Award, judged by Zaffar Kunial (Shortlist) 2019 Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition, judged by Jackie Kay (Shortlist) 2019 Blue Nib Chapbook Contest (Shortlist) 2018 Yeovil Prize for Poetry (Shortlist) 2018 Live Canon International Poetry Award, judged by Liz Berry (Shortlist) 2018 Flash 500 Competition (Shortlist) 2018 Frome Festival Short Story Competition (Shortlist) 2019 Iceland Writers Retreat Alumni Award (Finalist) 2018 CRAFT Elements (Finalist) 2022 Cast of Wonders Flash Fiction Contest (Semi-Finalist) LONGLISTS 2023 Voyage Anthology Award 2022 AUB Poetry Award judged by Glyn Maxwell 2022 National Poetry Competition judged by Fiona Benson, David Constantine and Rachel Long 2022 Live Canon International Poetry Award judged by Rebecca Goss 2021 BBC Short Story Award 2021 National Poetry Competition judged by Neil Astley, Jonathan Edwards and Karen McCarthy Wool 2022 Lucent Dreaming Poetry Award 2022 Hastings Book Festival Poetry Prize 2022 Spelt Poetry Prize 2021 Anthology Poetry Prize 2021 Acumen Poetry Competition 2021 The Phare WriteWords Poetry Prize 2021 Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize (Single Poem) 2020 Poetry International Prize 2020 Cambridge Short Story Prize 2020 Yaffle Prize 2018 Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition OTHERS Oxford Brookes November 2021 Poetry Challenge (Winner) 2021 Welter's Micro Fiction Contest, (Honourable Mention) 45th New Millennium Writing Awards (Honourable Mention) Short Stories Aloud Showcase (Commendation) Isis Short Story Competition (Second Place) |
“In these poems which sing and see from a distance, Laura Theis is in complete control of tone – never forced or rushed, convinced the gentlemen callers will leave having not detected the fire in the grates of the witchy girls.... It is a book of entrances and exits - the astronaut's wife, a lover on the moon – reports from a world where jellyfish are admirable, space and distance present both in the barely punctuated lines and between partner and partner. These poems are resourceful and magical, tracing infinity 'the way bees love to eat / honey but also make honey.'“ - Matt Bryden, Judge of the 2020 Charroux Prize "I was blown away by how sophisticated and loaded the poems in this book were. Each one feels like it’s a whole story neatly packed onto one page, sometimes even just a few lines." - Brooke Goodwin, author of Exposed "A sparkling debut...a small treasure box filled with surprising, unusual jewels." - Christina Houen, Perfect Words |
“How to Extricate Yourself combines vivid narrative, seriousness and delight in language that moves easily between wry imaginative energy and resonant pathos. This is a debut collection of admirable wit and invention, and introduces Laura Theis – already a successful fiction writer - as a poet of distinctive new voice.”
- Jane Draycott, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature "No one else does weird and tender quite like Laura Theis." - Kiran Millwood Hargrave, poet and novelist "Grabbed me not just for the overall quality from poem to poem but also from line to line... I could have read these poems all night and still have read some more." - Paul McGrane, who selected Laura Theis as the winner of the 2020 Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize "A witty and playful collection from a gifted poet who blends delicate lyricism with candid confession. An engaging and fresh new voice." - Anna Saunders, 2020 Wirral Prize Judge & CEO of Cheltenham Poetry Festival "This is the most beautiful book, poems like magical jewels that sweep you away to fairytale forests and ask all the tricky questions along the way." - Ali Jones, author of Heartwood and Omega "Absolutely fantastic stuff. The poems often start off feeling smoothly conversational - maybe charming or whimsical - until the bottom falls out and you see all the rolling depths beneath. It's full of poems that feel like scenes or perspectives from imaginary folktales, as if just around the corners, the whole story is rolling outwards. It's also extremely funny - sudden barbed jokes smuggled in unexpectedly." - Calum Novak-Mitchell, OUP |
"There is a wry, subtly wistful humor....
The poems are strongest when the mystical
is woven through the power of relationship...
each poem has a strength of its own...
Theis is certainly a writer to watch in the future."
- Sandra J. Lindow, SFPA
"[I]t’s a delight to have a whole collection to immerse yourself in Theis’s imagination...
What is so striking about these stories is that even in their fantasy, there is something spookily familiar about them: being haunted by a threatening presence in your own house, feeling dissociated from yourself, loneliness and isolation.
We’re all living through what is probably one of the weirder years of our lives.
Reading poetry which not only embraces but advises on this weirdness is strangely comforting. The collection is Theis in her element. She takes the reader by the hand to guide you into a world of monsters and insomnia, but it is a world she knows well.
As ‘adaptation’ describes, she “was already expert at simmering in low-level dread / like black bath water.” It is possible to bear the worry and the uncertainty,
tolerate the spiders of your hair, adopt the dragon, and live on the moon for a while.
Poetry like this is there with us."
- Phoebe Nicholson, Oxford Poetry Library (Book of the Month, February 2021)
The poems are strongest when the mystical
is woven through the power of relationship...
each poem has a strength of its own...
Theis is certainly a writer to watch in the future."
- Sandra J. Lindow, SFPA
"[I]t’s a delight to have a whole collection to immerse yourself in Theis’s imagination...
What is so striking about these stories is that even in their fantasy, there is something spookily familiar about them: being haunted by a threatening presence in your own house, feeling dissociated from yourself, loneliness and isolation.
We’re all living through what is probably one of the weirder years of our lives.
Reading poetry which not only embraces but advises on this weirdness is strangely comforting. The collection is Theis in her element. She takes the reader by the hand to guide you into a world of monsters and insomnia, but it is a world she knows well.
As ‘adaptation’ describes, she “was already expert at simmering in low-level dread / like black bath water.” It is possible to bear the worry and the uncertainty,
tolerate the spiders of your hair, adopt the dragon, and live on the moon for a while.
Poetry like this is there with us."
- Phoebe Nicholson, Oxford Poetry Library (Book of the Month, February 2021)
'A poem in which I use the word 'betoken' for the first time in my life' foregrounds Artifice (as Veronica Forrest-Thomson meant it) in its title, disavowing the idea of naturalised speech. We know the word "betoken" will appear at some point and that it's not a part of the poet's regular lexicon. So the "little bauble of dust" on the first line shouldn't take us by surprise, but it's still heartstopping. This is a poem built wonderfully - as only poems can be - around contrasts (down/up), internal rhymes ("dripped/dipped") and unusual etymological/aural links ("grave/gravity," "mare/mark") which stretch the texture of language to the point where, when the poet reveals this to be an elegy - for one who made "a mark that betokens/ the death of light" - the commonplace of that sentiment has been entirely aerated, made new and true and sad.
Will Harris
on why he selected my poem
'a poem in which I use the word 'betoken' for the first time in my life'
as the winner of the EAL Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize
on why he selected my poem
'a poem in which I use the word 'betoken' for the first time in my life'
as the winner of the EAL Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize
"I made my guiding principle that of memorability. Which stories stayed with me and made their mark, whether by their attention to language and image, or by their originality, or by what they made me think or feel beyond the final sentence. [...] ‘Bird girl’ by Laura Theis is startlingly fresh, with a poetic form and sensibility. This flash made me linger on the beauty of its lines and images, while leaving an indelible emotional impression. [...] [It] has a poetic sensibility along with the essential storytelling of flash fiction."
- Kathy Fish
on why she selected my story
'Bird girl' as a finalist
of the 2020 Mslexia
Flash Fiction Competition.
on why she selected my story
'Bird girl' as a finalist
of the 2020 Mslexia
Flash Fiction Competition.
‘Sleep Lessons from Birds’ recalls Wallace Stevens’ ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’ but brings its own bravura to this method of improvisation. Each of the seven units is a mini-poem in itself, each its own vivid moment, but stacking up overall to make a satisfying whole: a remarkable feat.
- Maurice Riordan,
judge of the 2022 Five Words Poetry Competition
judge of the 2022 Five Words Poetry Competition
A beautiful and unsettling poem, dreams of flying imagines a dream-swap between human and avian sleepers. Jubilant and dark, the poem’s use of line breaks and economy of language build a sense of the effort and weightlessness of flight; balanced by the sinister trade-off of ‘dream for a nightmare’ as the bird finds itself ‘a head full of words/ where there ought to be song’.
- 2022 Shelley Memorial Prize Judges' Report
"...Wonderfully unearthly interconnected short stories
which, like dreams, one doesn’t want to be pulled away from,
and which seem to hazily, subconsciously echo one another....
Laura Theis writes
with a beautiful and compelling strangeness.
This was a pleasure to read.”
Literary Agent Victoria Hobbs
on why she selected my short story collection
‘The Cinema of Dreams'
as the winner of the 2017 AM Heath Prize
on why she selected my short story collection
‘The Cinema of Dreams'
as the winner of the 2017 AM Heath Prize
"A brilliant, disturbing, very contemporary story about young female sexuality in the age of instagram culture and predatory older men."
Lucy Caldwell,
judge of the 2021 Mairtin Crawford Award,
about my story "Let Everything Happen To You".
Lucy Caldwell,
judge of the 2021 Mairtin Crawford Award,
about my story "Let Everything Happen To You".
"‘There’s a Tyre Swing in Bagley Wood’ is utterly successful on its
own terms. As well as carrying me throughout its 35 lines without
a hitch, it made me laugh at the end, so successfully did it undo
everything that came before. I was reminded of a favourite poem
of mine by Allen Ginsberg, ‘Things I Don’t Know’. In their way,
both poems explore our grip on reality. A deep poem in a light
poem’s clothing that touches on poetry, knowledge and
loneliness. Touché."
- Matt Bryden
on why he selected my poem
'There's a Tyre Swing in Bagley Wood'
as the runner-up of the 2020 Charroux Poetry Prize.
on why he selected my poem
'There's a Tyre Swing in Bagley Wood'
as the runner-up of the 2020 Charroux Poetry Prize.
"Language which balances
the mundane and everyday with the wonderful...
All the poems know exactly where to begin:
"The solitude is/ an unexpected present"[...]
A poem about swimming
contains the wonderful insight:
"I am afraid of happiness."
the mundane and everyday with the wonderful...
All the poems know exactly where to begin:
"The solitude is/ an unexpected present"[...]
A poem about swimming
contains the wonderful insight:
"I am afraid of happiness."
- Philip Rush discussing
parts of my shortlisted poem "for a spell"
in the 2021 Writewords Competition
judges' feedback.
parts of my shortlisted poem "for a spell"
in the 2021 Writewords Competition
judges' feedback.
“This immensely enjoyable collection
is intelligently and entertainingly told….
with a light touch, and an essential light-heartedness.
It demonstrates an unusual sophistication
and subtlety of approach.”
"I was pleased to see how many stories had a global perspective and diverse characters. Reading through the stories several times, I couldn’t help but be impressed with the quality and amazed by the inventiveness...
As I see it, The Sad Tagine by Laura Theis is the clear winner.
It's a funny, touching, strong story
that deals with grief in an interesting and ultimately uplifting way.
It also made me laugh. Each time I read it, I liked it more."
"Laura Theis [is] a new author for FW, but one you’re going to see
again in these pages. Laura’s poetry is simply fabulous."
again in these pages. Laura’s poetry is simply fabulous."
Steph P. Bianchini,
Editor of Frozen Wavelets,
in the Editorial for Issue 4.
Editor of Frozen Wavelets,
in the Editorial for Issue 4.
"The poem...never yields its secret power.
That stays hidden in the use of vocabulary, imagery and
incident concealed in the fabric of the words
like a dagger in a cloak...
At last I submit and bow to its subtle influence and call that poem
a winner..."
That stays hidden in the use of vocabulary, imagery and
incident concealed in the fabric of the words
like a dagger in a cloak...
At last I submit and bow to its subtle influence and call that poem
a winner..."
Paul Sutherland
who chose my poem "tiny choirboy" as the winner of the
2018 Hammond House
International Literary Awards for Poetry.
who chose my poem "tiny choirboy" as the winner of the
2018 Hammond House
International Literary Awards for Poetry.
"Terrific tale, beautifully descriptive
with a wonderful twist to the standard story form."
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My Mogford Prize winning short story "The Lift', read by Ian Wilson-Soppitt |
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Talking about winning the AM Heath Prize for 'The Cinema of Dreams', the Vida Study and the importance of visibility for female writers in an interview with the German newspaper 'hallo' (January 2018) |
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Talking to Marc Oliver Schreib about winning the Mogford Prize and the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize (April 2020) |
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A live reading of five poems at the Mst Creative Writing Alumni Poetry Reading at Kellogg College, Oxford |
An interview for Julia Jäckel's
German-language podcast
'Abendgrün'
(talking about creative writing,
where ideas come from,
writing in one's second language,
Kelly Link, binge-watching Netflix,
and the Bechdel test)
