ALT Road work scene with cones, signs and barriers. Title: High-Visibility. Quote: 'When I lost loved ones last year I thought my childhood fears would return.' and 'Sleeping in mum's house waiting for the seen and felt,' Poet: Piers Haben.

ALT Hazy background in shades of green. Centred - a square with a pattern of Highland cows. Text: Congratulations (in italics) Jackson Patterned with cows IS&T May 2026 Pick of the Month

ALT Elderly white woman looks directly at camera, appears angry. Title: Orange Spell. Quotes: 'An angry grandmother isn't sure who she's angry with.' and 'Everybody, nobody. Though she prefers to wear black, she casts a spell that turns people orange.'

ALT Lamp, glass of beer and an open book. Title: Old Peculiar. Quote: 'An Old Peculiar is slid back on the table. She returns to her book. The room is still. Outside night falls. This is her evening.' and 'Always the same.' and '5pm is when she gives up. She hoovers with violence. She hangs the laundry. She wipes away evidence.' Author: Patrick Zimmermann.

ALT Children play fighting with water balloons. Title: 'Ash's escape to the Country'. Quotes: 'There's a house in the suburb of between-the-wars...' and 'Parents scold and complain, siblings punch and scream'. Poet: Lesley Burt.

ALT Photo of a bedroom and window with view of a tree. Border of plants. Title: On sunday morning you lay together laughing. Quotes: 'She gets into your bed like when she was little.' and 'Flowers grow out of the wardrobe, moss claims the windowsill.' Poet Gabrielle Meadows.

ALT Digital image with blue background, with logos on the left. Text announcing 2026 winners in white font. On the right: a bright painting by Munir Wakad of an orange orchard overlaid with text in Arabic and book jacket of I Want to Talk to You

ALT Photo of a leaf in blonde hair. Title: I had a leaf in my hair when I arrived. Quotes: 'the receptionist thought it was a hairclip' and 'I didn't know how to tell her I'd been doing my pre-op under a beech tree'. Poet: Alice Huntley.

ALT A long row of hedges along a field and walkway. Title: My Dad Complains That The Hedges Are Overgrown. Quote: 'and the word bemuses me, implying as it does' and 'the concept of excess in what can only be good'. Poet: Gemma Blakeley.

ALT Picture of a snail with antennae facing the viewer. Title: Between the Ears. Quotes: 'Molluscous receivers, would that you could turn your talents inwards, and pick up' and 'all that goes on in the cerebral swamp that separates you,' Poet: Nick Cooke.

ALT English countryside landscape. Title: Twitch. Quote: 'There's a flash of colour from the hedge.' Poet: Luke Moran.

ALT A woman with olive skin who looks like she just stepped into the forest and is looking up or is in a kind of dancing pose. Title: And when you step into the clearing. Quotes: 'there will be dancing. The unsteady moon, shaken' and 'to ribbon; shimmering through regalia of clouds.' Poet: Cáit O’Neill McCullagh