This year’s Foyles Young Poets of the Year were announced yesterday, during National Poetry Day.  You can read the winning poems and see the list of commended young poets here. The prize, which honours the best poets aged 11 to 17, saw a record 7,351 entries from 46 countries. Jesse Rodrigues, from Maine, US, was the youngest of the top 15 winners, aged 13. The Foyle Young Poets of the Year award is one of the largest poetry competitions in the world, with this year's 100 recipients coming from the UK, US, New Zealand, Nigeria and Thailand. The awards recognise 15 overall winners, and a further 85 who are commended. Of the top 15, 12 were from the UK and three from the US. Many of them joined the audience during National Poetry Day readings at the Southbank Centre yesterday.

The winners were: Naomi Hamilton, 16, Northern Ireland (The Wilderness); Conor McKee, 17, Kent (Hemingway's Thirst); Clare Carlile, 17, Sheffield (The Everyday Hymn); Tallulah Hutson, (pictured), 16, London (The Accident); Abigail Setchfield, 17, Bedford (Reduced); Emily Burns, 17, Pittsford, New York (Minutiae); Sarah Fletcher, 17, London (Brighton); Jessica Kelham-Hohler, 17, London (Jim); Phoebe Stuckes, 16, West Somerset (Reach/Throw/Wade/Row); Sonja Moore, 16, San Diego, US (The Frame); Jesse Rodrigues, 13, Maine, US (Fire Knows); Flora de Falbe, 16, London (Five things about the lake); Dillon Leet, 16, London (Birthday Present); Phoebe Boswall, 17, Kent (Baking); David Carey, 17, London (The Apple Tree).

They were selected by judges Christopher Reid and Helen Mort, who won the award herself at 13. "Many of this year's entries were eye-catching, but the winning poems were so vivid they played tricks with the light," Mort said. Reid added: "Skill, intelligence, feeling and imagination are all in abundance, together with that magic ingredient of youthful freshness." Both Mort and Reid gave readings themselves at the Southbank Centre during National Poetry Day.