McKie scoops poetry prize

Jane McKie took the first prize of £5000 for her poem Leper Window, St Mary the Virgin, beating more than 1200 others from around the world.

Judge Kona Macphee said: “Leper Window epitomises everything I love about poetry. It revels in the musicality of language and is magnificently concise, evoking a whole lost world in a dozen elegantly understated lines.”

The ceremony was held just before the first anniversary of the death of Professor Edwin Morgan, who held the post of Scotland’s first Makar, or national poet. It is one of the biggest poetry prizes in the UK, with awards totalling £6600.