Olivia McCannon has been named at the Aldeburgh poetry festival as winner of this year’s Fenton Aldeburgh first collection prize 2012. Her collection, Exactly My Own Length, is  published by Carcanet. On behalf of his fellow judges Esther Morgan and Alicia Stubbersfield, chair Robert Seatter said: “Her collection has a subtle craftsmanship, and her clean and precise language rewards several re-readings revealing new layers of connection and meaning. Exactly My Own Length is surprising without ever being showy, feelingful without overplaying its sentiment, and universal without being predictable.”

McCannon’s collection contains work spanning 10 years. Roughly half of it was written in Paris, where she lived full-time for eight years. The second half came into existence during the last year of her mother’s life – “poems to hold onto when everything was slipping away”, she said.

In addition to the cash award (£2,000), Olivia McCannon will receive a paid invitation to read at next year’s festival, plus a week’s paid protected writing time on the Suffolk coast.

One of the poems from Exactly My Own Length is At the Door:

At the Door

At the door of this house
We need a box in which
To post our troubles as we arrive.

Troubles must not enter this house
Only lightness and smooth cheer
Bunches of gerberas and jokes.

If we’re to keep up the walls of this house
Small things must not be made big
Big things must be made small.

The ticking bomb of this house
Is guarded by a sentry who may shout
To cover his deafness.

We who open the door of this house
Must enter stripped of clocks or watches –
Although you know what time it is.

At the door of this house
We need a box in which
To post our troubles as we leave.