Get to Know our Kingfisher Judge: Jude Neale

A Place for Short Poems

Our 2025 Kingfisher Poetry Prize is now open! For this contest, we are delighted to welcome back the multitalented Jude Neale as our final judge. With a maximum of only twenty lines permitted per poem, we are looking for short works that entice us from the start and that stick with us long after we have put them down.

Send us your best, previously unpublished poems by August 15th, 2025 for a chance at the $300 top prize and publication in Pulp Literature Issue 49, Winter 2026!

Please find the full contest guidelines here.

Meet Final Judge, Jude Neale!

Jude Neale is a master educator, Canadian poet, vocalist, spoken word performer, workshop facilitator, and mentor. As well, she has has written twelve collections of poetry. She is a beloved mother, grandmother, and wife.

Jude’s book A Quiet Coming of Light: A Poetic Memoir (Leaf) was a finalist for the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, a recognition of Canadian women poets. Her manuscript, Splendid in Its Silence, won publication in the UK. Her poem, ‘Blue Bowl’, was a finalist for the prestigious Irish Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Award. ‘Emptiness in the Garden’, selected by Britain’s Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, rode the buses in the Channel Islands for a year.

Drawing on her musical background, Jude collaborated with violist, composer, and visionary, Thomas RL Beckman, to write a poetic prose narrative for the three-movement orchestrated suite, The St. Roch Suite, performed live by the Prince George Symphony Orchestra.

Curious what our final judge might be looking for?

You can find two of Jude’s poems in Pulp Literature Issues 13 and 37. Read an excerpt of her poem ‘About Light’ from Issue 13 here, along with an excerpt of ‘Blaze of the Universe’ from Issue 37 here.

Submit your work to the 2025 Kingfisher Poetry Prize here!

Best of luck to all of our entrants!