Hannah Lowe has won the Costa poetry prize with her collection of sonnets The Kids (Bloodaxe), which draws on her years of teaching in an inner-city London sixth form, and her experiences as a teenager and a mother.

The Costa poetry award Judges Rishi Dastidar, Ian Duhig and Maya Jaggi said: "The Kids is the real deal. A page turner about the experience of teaching and being taught, it made us want to punch the air with joy... A contemporary book that buzzes with life while re-energising the sonnet that Shakespeare would recognise. All readers will find something of themselves here."  

Hannah Lowe was born in Ilford to an English mother and Jamaican-Chinese father. Her first book-length collection Chick (Bloodaxe) won the Michael Murphy Memorial prize. Her second full-length collection, Chan, was published by Bloodaxe in 2016.