Poet returns Stephen Spender prize after accusations of plagiarism

Dutch poetry site claims Allen Prowle’s translations of Rutger Kopland are ‘blatant plagiarism’

Following accusations of plagiarism, the winner of the Stephen Spender prize for poetry in translation has withdrawn his poems from the award and returned his £1,000 prize money.

Poet and translator Allen Prowle took the award last month for his translation of Dutch poet Rutger Kopland’s Johnson Brothers Ltd, about the death of Kopland’s father, a translation described as “superb” by judges. The win was Prowle’s second triumph in the Spender prize, which he had previously won in 2007 for his translations of Attilio Bertolucci’s poems.