Imogen Wade

Imogen Wade (born 1998 She won the National Poetry Competition 2023 for her poem 'The Time I Was Mugged in New York City', and the Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2024 for 'Poem About Love'.

Wade later trained in person-centred therapy at the University of Plymouth, and is now a practising therapist.

Writing Wade began publishing from an early age, winning a commendation for a poem at the Foyle Young Poets of Year Award in 2015, judged by Liz Berry. Ever since, she has won several accolades, having been named a Runner-Up in The Poetry Business's 2023 New Poets Prize for her pamphlet manuscript Fire Safety, selected by the poet Kim Moore, and commended in the 2024 Moth Poetry Prize. In 2024, Wade was a finalist in the Montreal Prize for her poem 'Argos'. She was also named first prize winner in the Ware Poets Open Competition 2023, and her poems have appeared in The Poetry Review, PN Review, The London Magazine, and elsewhere. Occasionally, Wade has also organised free writing workshops.

In 2024, Wade was named the winner of National Poetry Competition 2023 for her poem 'The Time I Was Mugged in New York City', selected by the poets Jane Draycott, Will Harris and Clare Pollard. The poem was praised for the description of "an ugly incident in strangely beautiful detail". This win got her considerable attention, with The Spectator blaming the organisation behind the competition, The Poetry Society, for having "betrayed poetry". In a blog post, poet Courtenay Schembri Gray found the poem "woefully unambitious". While The Spectator refuted the idea of Wade's poem being a poem at all, calling it "prose, printed in central [block] on the page," The poet Michael Conley praised the poem for its "tension", and said he was "glad it won a baffling amount of money." Written in response to "a real life experience", 'The Time I Was Mugged in New York City' was one of 19 thousand poems submitted to the competition in 2023.

In October 2024, she was awarded a DYCP Grant from Arts Council England for A Poet's First Novel, and was later longlisted in the National Poetry Competition 2024. and was published in March 2026 by Corsair, a Little, Brown Book Group imprint. The poet Kim Moore said that Wade "knows exactly what she is doing with the handling of line from poem to poem". The Madrid Review praised the collection for "a distinctive blend of lyrical intensity, philosophical reflection and emotional candour."

Books Girl, Swooning (Corsair, 2026)

Awards 2015: Commended, Foyle Young Poets of Year 2023: Shortlisted, Plough Poetry Prize, for 'Tennis Lesson' 2024: Commended, Moth Poetry Prize 2024: Finalist, Montreal International Poetry Prize, for 'Argos' 2024: Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2025: Longlisted, National Poetry Competition 2024