The Penfro Festival, now in its ninth year and continuing to go from strength to strength, has engaged a very exciting judge for its annual poetry competition. Rhiannon Hooson, a renowned poet, won the Penfro Festival’s First Chapter competition in 2018, with her exquisite piece, ‘The Unlovely Sea’. She has since been awarded a prestigious Literature Wales bursary to complete the novel.

A Welsh poet and author, she has won major awards for her work, including an Eric Gregory award from the Society of Authors, and she has performed at literature festivals and venues across Europe and the UK. Her work has been featured in the Guardian, Magma, and Poetry Wales among many others. Her first full-length collection, The Other City, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award. She has this to say about the poetry entries: "Above all else I am looking for a deep appreciation of language and all the ways it can dazzle, illuminate, and confound; a heartfelt demonstration of joy in words. Poems should display sensitivity, a specificity of language, and hopefully surprise in some way."

All profits raised will go back to supporting the continuation of the festival. The top 25 poets will be published in an anthology and receive a publication fee (£25).