Judge for the inaugural Three Pillars Press Pamphlet Award 2026

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Cover, Legion, Eleanor Hooker.jpg

"There are chapbooks, and there are chapbooks. And then there is Legion by Eleanor Hooker.

Letterset by hand, crafted in the old style, these 8 poems sing of honeybees and intone the "trembling water of the lake". Eleanor's work is evocative as always, teeming with the profusion of nature and its gifts and the people who interact with these, in good ways and bad. Echoes of Yeats's "bee-loud glade" come to mind, not just because of the theme but for the texture of the language too.

But Eleanor's words focus on the feminine, weaving images like spells cast over the page, words to harness the energy of the natural world that most of us don't understand but that lead the poet "to wheedle with words".

The honeybee with all its associations - productivity, sweet honey, its sting, the drone reproducing only to die - is a charming metaphor for the many dichotomies of life as well as the greed that abounds in society, where the bee-elect is "trapped in the syrup of its own success".

A beautiful artefact made by Hans van Eijk of Bonnefant Press, Maastricht, Holland, with frontispiece by Jeanie Tomanek."

Anamaría Crowe Serrano - poet and author

"There are chapbooks, and there are chapbooks. And then there is Legion by Eleanor Hooker.

Letterset by hand, crafted in the old style, these 8 poems sing of honeybees and intone the "trembling water of the lake". Eleanor's work is evocative as always, teeming with the profusion of nature and its gifts and the people who interact with these, in good ways and bad. Echoes of Yeats's "bee-loud glade" come to mind, not just because of the theme but for the texture of the language too.

But Eleanor's words focus on the feminine, weaving images like spells cast over the page, words to harness the energy of the natural world that most of us don't understand but that lead the poet "to wheedle with words".

The honeybee with all its associations - productivity, sweet honey, its sting, the drone reproducing only to die - is a charming metaphor for the many dichotomies of life as well as the greed that abounds in society, where the bee-elect is "trapped in the syrup of its own success".

A beautiful artefact made by Hans van Eijk of Bonnefant Press, Maastricht, Holland, with frontispiece by Jeanie Tomanek."

Anamaría Crowe Serrano - poet and author

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Eleanor Hooker

Aug 28

1 min read

An absolute joy to judge the inaugural Three Pillars Press Pamphlet Award 2026

Award news Via Three Pillars Press

“The Results - 2026 Poetry Pamphlet Competition

We are delighted to announce the results of the Three Pillars Press 2026 Poetry Pamphlet competition. Our judge Eleanor Hooker wrote:

It was a joy and an honour to read the entries for the inaugural Three Pillars Press Pamphlet Competition. The standard of writing was exceptionally high, and I was impressed by the deft control and command of language, line and subject matter shown by each poet. I admired the ways in which the poems surprised and moved me, making and remaking the world, and challenging what I thought I knew about it.

WINNER

The Outside World by Niamh Twomey, Belfast.

RUNNER-UP

M(other)ing by Elaine Westnott-O’Brien, Waterford.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

THE GIRL WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH THE BUFFALO HERDER by Kara Joy Barlow, Belfast.

SWEENEY’S LEGEND by Doreena Jennings, Carlow.

Rattled Heart by Peggy McCarthy, Waterford.

Scarlett in the Hatchet Field by E.M. Morrow, Scotland.

COMMENDED

SMALL CATASTROPHE by Bernadette McCarthy, Cork.

HOW COLD THE EMPTY SKY by Sacha Hutchinson, Galway.

Divest by Derval Tubridy, Dublin.

Avagab by Jason Lovell, Derry. “

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