A new crop of poets were named as Foyle Young Poets of the Year at London’s Southbank Centre on Thursday 2 October, National Poetry Day, and congratulated by children’s author Julia Donaldson. The London-based young poets’ competition, run by the Poetry Society, cemented its global appeal this year with a record breaking 13,630 poems sent in by 7,603 young poets from 78 countries, making it the largest poetry competition in the world. Among this year’s winners (the 15 top winners and 85 commended poets) were young poets from France, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Canada and the US, many of whom travelled to London for the ceremony. The competition is open to all young poets aged 11-17 writing in English.

Judges Grace Nichols and Simon Barraclough had a tough job in selecting the winners, although  Barraclough praised the final selection of 15 top winners and 85 commended poets as “impossible to ignore”. Nichols spoke of the poems’ “hauntingly arresting” qualities, “vivid with imaginative detail”. She was impressed by how details of everyday life were brought into focus in “fresh and original ways” in many of the poems, whilst Barraclough praised how monsters and mythologies receive “bold, gruesome, vigorous” treatments, with figures such as Moby Dick, Captain Ahab, Prometheus, the Little Mermaid and even General Pinochet making an appearance.

All 100 winning poets were invited to the prize giving ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Thursday (National Poetry Day). The top 15 Foyle Young Poets of the Year will also attend a residential writing week at an Arvon centre. All 100 winning poets will receive book prizes and become youth members of the Poetry Society.

The top 15 winners were: Sophia Tait, 12, West Lothian; Sala Fadelallah, 13, Cardiff; Magnus Dixon, 13, Aberdeenshire; Jasmine Burgess, 13, Oxford; Hannah Keyte, 13, Beckenham, Kent;  Isla Anderson, 15, Oxted, Surrey; Audrey Spensley, 16, Ohio, US; Matthew Ridley, 16, Pennsylvania, US; Rebecca Alifimoff, 16, Indiana, US;  Kathryn Cussons, 17, London; Joseph Davison-Duddles, 17, Stockton-on-Tees;  Anne Widdowson, 17, Doncaster; IIla Colley, 17, Kendal, Cumbria; Kyle Lovell, 17, Hythe, Kent; Daniella Cugini, 17, Warwick.

PIcture shows Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson with five of the youngest winners - Magnus Dixon, 13;  Jasmine Burgess, 13; Sala Fadelallah, 13; Hannah Keyte, 13; and Sophia Tait, 12.