Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual 2020

The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award is a celebration of innovation across new poetry and short fiction. The prize, now in its 14th year, is a hotbed for new literary talent. It presents both emerging and established writers with the opportunity to showcase new work, propelling their careers through publication and talent development. This year, Aesthetica welcomed thousands of entries from over 40 countries. This publication provides a platform for writing across a range of themes, topics and styles, offering meaningful perspectives on the world around us. The winning and shortlisted entries for 2020 experiment with form and technique to express the complex emotions of desire, grief, conflict and resolution, as well as concepts of transformation, perception and change. This year’s shortlisted writers include recent winner of the Ruskin Prize and third in the National Poetry Competition Mark Fiddes; Claire Potter, author of three poetry collections (Swallow, In Front of a Comma, N’ombre) and shortlisted writer for the Keats-Shelley Poetry Award 2017; and poet and visual artist Ella Frears, whose work has been published in Poetry London, LRB and The Moth. Frears has also completed residencies with the National Trust and Tate Britain.