MINGLED VOICES 4 is an anthology of one hundred and twenty-four poems, the work of sixty-nine poets, selected from those which were entered in the fourth annual international competition for the International Proverse Poetry Prize in 2019.The International Proverse Poetry Prize was jointly founded in 2016 by Dr Gillian Bickley and Dr Verner Bickley MBE, in association with the annual international Proverse Prize for unpublished book-length fiction, non-fiction or poetry, submitted in English, which they also founded, in 2008. Poems could be submitted on any subject or topic, chosen by each poet, or on the subject chosen for 2019 by the Administrators, “Plastic” (interpreted in any way each writer chose). There was a free choice of form and style.Included in the anthology are the poems that won the first, second, and third prizes. Selection to appear in the anthology was also awarded as a prize by the judges for the Prize. This year, special mention is made of six of these poets. Poems were submitted from Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Macau, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Turkey, the Peoples’ Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.The countries of birth of these poets include Australia, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa, The Netherlands, South Africa, The Peoples’ Republic of China, the Philippines, The United Arab Emirates, The United Kingdom, the United States of America, Turkey.Some are new or young writers. Others are already well-published as poets, whether in magazines and journals or in book form; some with several published poetry collections of their own. Some are prize-winning writers and/or winners of grants to support their literary work, Several have participated in national and international poetry festivals and other prestigious events. Some are leaders in that they have formed poetry writing and/or appreciation groups, including online writing communities. Others have influential positions in the publishing world. For at least twenty-one of the sixty-nine, English is not their mother-tongue. About twenty-eight of them are men, forty-one, women; a ratio of four men to every six women.Brief biographies of those whose work is represented in Mingled Voices 4 are included in the anthology.To the extent that those whose poetry is published here tell us about their occupations and/or working lives, we know that among them are authors and writers (including of ESL materials, fantasy novels, legal texts, musicals, non-fiction, science fiction, screenplays, TV scripts), editors, essayists, journalists (including a part-time columnist), literary critics, playwrights, poets, researchers, translators (including of Italian, Spanish, and poetry), a media communications director, a former academic librarian, teachers and retired teachers at different levels and for different groups (including of those with dyslexia) and in different areas (including American literature and film, art history, English, composition, creative writing, discourse analysis, English Literature, ESL, Fine Arts, Humanities, interpreting, Italian and German languages, rhetorical studies, Slavic and English Linguistics, studio art, stylistics, Theory of Knowledge, translating, voice and piano), a clinical psychologist, a doctor in general practice, actors, a voice-over artist, television presenters, radio broadcasters, a photographer, a filmmaker, lawyers and former lawyers, a musician, an occasional blacksmith, a potter, an engineer, an aeronautical engineer. “An unusually powerful collection of works unfolding an engagement with space and time that is highly topical and arresting.”—Charles Lowe, PhD.
