Melanie Swetz, head of English at Bilkent Erzurum Laboratory School, has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in Poetry for the third time. This year, two of Ms. Swetz’s poems—”Batumi in Autumn” and “Apricot Thoughts”— appeared on the Bridport list, which was announced on October 17.
In 2011, “Mehmet’s Lemons,” about Mehmet’s Bufe on East Campus, was shortlisted, as was “Rio” in 2013.
This past summer, Ms. Swetz was awarded a scholarship by Omnidawn, which publishes “creative works that open readers…to the myriad ways that language may bring new light, insight, awareness, as well as a heightened respect for and appreciation of differences.” She studied with American poets Rusty Morrison, Norma Cole, Arthur Sze and Robert Hass (a former US poet laureate).
A poem by Ms. Swetz, “Metrical Considerations,” will appear in the November issue of “The English Journal,” a publication of the (US) National Council of Teachers of English.