The finalists for The Troubadour International Poetry Prize 2015 have been announced in London, judged by Jean Sprackland & John McAuliffe.

The annual Troubadour Poetry Prize (£5000) is one of the largest UK prizes for an individual poem. Administered by Coffee-House Poetry, this year the prize attracted over 4,000 entries from around the world.

The prize-giving evening took place on Monday night at The Troubadour in Brompton Road, Earls Court, London, where the winning poets were announced and read alongside Jean Sprackland & John McAuliffe.

John McAuliffe has published four books with The Gallery Press: A Better Life (2002), Next Door (2007), Of All Places (PBS Recommendation, 2011) and The Way In (2015). He lives in Manchester where he teaches at the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing and writes a monthly poetry column for the Irish Times.

Jean Sprackland is the author of four collections of poetry, Tattoos for Mothers Day (Spike, 1997), Hard Water (Cape, 2003), Tilt (Cape, 2007) & Sleeping Keys (Random House, 2013), & Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach (Cape, 2012). Originally from Burton upon Trent, she studied English & Philosophy at the University of Kent & is a Trustee of the Poetry Archive.

‘The Troubadour was founded in 1954 as a writers' and artists' cafe: Stanley Kubrick had his favourite table in the early '60s, & it soon became the hub of a folk-poetry-jazz-&-r'n'b revolution. And while acts as varied as Paul Simon, Joan Baez, Eric Clapton, Martin Carthy, the Stones, the Dubliners & Bob Dylan flourished in the cellar-club's bohemian setting, it was poetry that made the cluttered, eccentric & always-lively coffee-house a magnet for London's writers over the past 60 years.'

The prizewinning poems are published on the Coffee-House Poetry website, including Wes Lee’s poem: ‘You Know You Will Never Ride a Bike Again’.

The Troubadour Poetry Prize will reopen for submissions in the New Year.