Bethan Murphy has won the 2025 Shooter Poetry Competition with “Birth Plan”, while Sylvie Jane Lewis came runner-up with “Small Town Pride Parade”.

Murphy’s poem pierces idealised notions of childbirth with its series of sharp juxtapositions, which powerfully drive home the contrast between fantasy notions of birth and the often quite different reality. As an English teacher from Salisbury, Murphy has previously published poetry and flash fiction in magazines including Green Ink Poetry, Eucalyptus Lit, Arkana, and Sugar House Review.

Lewis captures with humour and energy the range of colourful characters taking part in Chichester’s first Pride Parade last year. Her poetry has been published in The London Magazine, Ink Sweat and Tears, and Them, all, and has been commended in the Ware Poets Prize and the Bridport Prize.

Both poems are available to read online at the Competition Winners page, and “Birth Plan” will also appear in the forthcoming print edition of Shooter (themed Sweet Hereafter). The magazine can be ordered via Shooter’s Subscriptions page; this issue, Shooter’s 20th, will be the final edition of Shooter in print.

Huge congratulations to this year’s poetry winners!