I was naturally very pleased to win this award. On the other hand I was a little embarrassed because there are lots of really good writers. It also creates a competitiveness and bitterness among writers and other people of the arts. If you love language, you like to shape it. It helps you to shape your own experience and hopefully to communicate other people's feelings.
People start thinking that writing is a career.
Under career in the dictionary it says a standard job, but it also says going downhill out of control, and I think maybe that's what poetry is all about. If winning a prize makes you more willling to take risks in your writing, that's fine. I don't believe in inspiration. I think it's consistent hard work. Don't wait around.