Seven winners aged 13-18, and 13 highly commended young poets have been chosen by the judges of the Poetry Society’s Slambassadors 2014 national youth poetry slam. The judges - Kate Tempest, Slambassadors artistic director Joelle Taylor, and Tom MacAndrew from the Poetry Society - had to select from approximately 900 entries from across the UK, more than double the number received in 2013. The seven Slambassadors winners, four girls and two boys, will perform at London’s Southbank Centre on 31 October. They are: Sadia Ahmed, pictured – ‘Emotional Euthanasia ‘, Tower Hamlets, London, aged 13; Ibukun Badmus – ‘Prayer’, Hackney, London, (14); Abdallah Alselami – ‘The Missile That Flies’, Brent, London (13); Jemima Higgins – ‘Paper Dolls’, Northern Ireland (17); Saoirse Lennon – ‘Double Digits’, Buckinghamshire (17); Tommy Sissons – ‘Bittersweet’, Brighton (18); Kate Walters – ‘Love Note’, Coventry (17).

The 13 commended poets are: Liv B, Danny Baalbaki, Troy Banxx, Foyre Jalloh, Charlotte Knowles Cutler, Nimatu Marah, Issy Prior, Bethany Rose, Karen Sarmiento, Alex Tweedale, Amani Uddin, Ross Walcott and Slawek Wozniak.

One winner, Kate Walters, who is autistic, said: “Slambassadors gives me the opportunity to stand up and speak without the need to conform to social rules; I can just talk, and because of that, it's the best platform for communication that I could possibly imagine.’’ Another winner, Saoirse Lennon, said: “I’ve always struggled with expressing emotion effectively... [but] I began writing and found comfort in that because I was expressing all my anxieties and getting them off my chest ... To have been filmed whilst performing to my workshop class, that was a big step for me.”

The 2014 winners’ showcase will take place in the Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, on 31 October, 4-7pm, featuring performances from the seven winners, and by spoken word artists Mark Grist and Joelle Taylor.