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The Yorkshire Poetry Prize, sponsored by the University of Huddersfield, has been won by Pauline Stephenson, of Halifax.

Pauline, a part-time psychotherapist who started writing poetry only two years ago, was presented with her award by Frieda Hughes, the daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, and David Gill, creative writing lecturer at the University of Huddersfield.

Pauline's winning poem, Glen Hume Mine 1948, attracted the attention of the judges, headed by the American lyric poet Anne Stevenson.

Ms Stevenson said that after studying the 150 entries from the Yorkshire region, she came up with a definite preference for Glen Hume Mine, with its five six-line stanzas progressing through a number of exact, evocative details to its final lines, "One arm wrapped around a dog, the other holding tight to a veranda post/ as if afraid of falling."

"This ending implies a fall, a departure, both from the Mine and from childhood. It says something universal (we all grow up) in the particular context of the poem. It was the winner."

Pauline said she was delighted to win the award. "I started writing poetry as a way of expression and found it fairly addictive. Ireceived the runner up prize in a WEA competition last year but apart from that have only entered one other competition and have not submitted anything for publication."

The runner up was Pat Borthwick, from Kirby Underdale, with Sold. She has been writer in residence for a canal, a coalmine, a chalk cliff "and a cabbage", the latter about allotments throughout the North. Her third full-length collection, Admiral FitzRoy's Barometer, is published by Templar this month and follows her last year's win of the Templar pamphlet competition.  

In third place was David Danbury from Todmorden, with Still Life. David, who has always written poetry and short stories, has formerly been a railway trackworker,gardener and social worker with people with severe learning difficulties.

He gained the confidence to enter competitions after attending the Hebden Bridge WEA writing group and recently had a poem accepted for publication in Dream Catcher magazine.

David Gill, lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield, said: "It's my great pleasure to award the Yorkshire Poetry Prize on behalf of Huddersfield University. We welcome the opportunity for our region's emerging creative writers to have their work read by top poets and to win a prestigious prize."

Enjoy reading the winning entries!