We are delighted that Romalyn Ante has been selected as a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellow for 2020/21, alongside poets Dzifa Benson and Jamie Hale. They were chosen from a field of nominees by award-winning poets and writers Joelle Taylor, Yomi Sode and Pascale Petit, as well as Jan Kofi-Tsekpo of Literature for Arts Council England; Jon Opie, Deputy Director of Jerwood Arts; and Nathalie Teitler, Project Manager for Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships.
Romalyn Ante’s highly acclaimed debut poetry collection ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS was published by Chatto & Windus in 2020. It was an Irish Times Best Poetry Book of 2020, an Observer Poetry Book of the Month and a Poetry School Poetry Book of the Year 2020. It was also a National Poetry Day UK Recommended Read and was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Romalyn also hosts a series of video interviews, Tsaá with Roma, where she talks to poets and other creatives to invite aspiring writers and new readers into world of poetry. She is now working on a memoir.
Each Fellow is gifted £15,000 as well as a year of critical support and mentoring from the programme’s manager Dr Nathalie Teitler. The Fellowship is designed to give the poets the time and space to focus on their craft, though there is no expectation that they produce a particular work or outcome during this time. Previous recipients include Anthony Joseph and Rathbone Folio Prize winner Raymond Antrobus.
Jon Opie, deputy director of Jerwood Arts, commented: ‘The Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships is a special programme, which over the last four years has charted significant changes in the poetry world and embraced the diversity of voices, experience and histories it encompasses. Past fellows, and now the ones we have announced today, exemplify some of the multitudes of forms and languages that makes poetry an essential part of this country’s life, inseparable from mainstream media, powerfully articulating lived-experiences and enhancing other artforms. I am hugely looking forward to working with Romalyn, Dzifa and Jamie over the coming year. Their talents are unique, and yet they share a generosity and sense of responsibility towards other poets and their communities. I have no doubt their Fellowships will be profound for them and for others around them.’
Sarah Crown, director of literature at Arts Council England, added: ‘The Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship continues to champion change in art funding practice in the UK as fearlessly as it has done for the last four years. Providing mentoring, financial support and, most importantly, time and space for underrepresented poets to experiment and hone their craft—without the external pressures of meeting a particular outcome—nurtures creativity and enriches the sector as a whole. The selectors have had the tough task of choosing three recipients from what was yet again an extremely strong set of nominees. Romalyn, Dzifa and Jamie join a long line of talented Fellows, and I am excited to see how they flourish over the coming year.’
Praise for ANTIEMETIC FOR HOMESICKNESS:
‘Poignant, beautiful, and meditative writing on movement — living in a foreign country, being away from one’s family, speaking a language not quite your own... This is possibly the most beautiful thing I have read this year.’ – Maria Lewandowska, The Poetry School Poetry Books of the Year
‘Captivating… playful… moving, witty and agile… These poems have a tended quality, as though Ante's kindness as a nurse extended to them. She is an unforced poet with a lightness of touch and fortitude, not neglecting to see her situation within a wider cultural and historical context’ – Kate Kellaway, Observer Poetry Book of the Month
‘Ante's poems are like embers, pared back to a slow-burning emotional core whose intensity she sustains elegantly throughout the collection’ – Times Literary Supplement
‘By turns playful and tender, offering a formally-various exploration of migration, community, and nursing... there is honesty, musicality, a powerful heart.’ – Seán Hewitt, Irish Times Best Poetry Books of 2020
‘A poetry of rapturous images and riveting conscience.’ – Tracy K. Smith
‘A poet to fall in love with... a fascinating and moving story of migration and loss, caring and tenderness’. – Liz Berry
About Romalyn Ante:
Photo: S. Chadawong
Romalyn Ante was born in 1989 during her hometown's fiesta of San Sebastian. She grew up and lived in the Philippines until she migrated to the UK when she was 16 years old. She is a Wolverhampton-based poet and co-founding editor of harana poetry.
She is the first East-Asian to win the Poetry London Prize (2018) and the Manchester Poetry Prize (2017). She also won the Creative Future Literary Award 2017.
Apart from being a writer, she also works as a specialist nurse practitioner.
Visit Romalyn’s website