Press Release: Prizes and Awards
The Tenth Christopher Tower Poetry Competition From Christ Church, Oxford
Posted at 1:01PM Wednesday 24 Mar 2010
Do teenagers still sit alone, admonishing the world and writing poetry?Over the last 30 years the image of the teenager shut in a bedroom disseminating views about love, war and the injustice of the British school system, has gradually faded. Today we are more likely to find teenagers on Twitter and Facebook, writing about themselves. And yet... the Christopher Tower Poetry Prize for sixth formers has once more drawn in a huge array of poems of the highest quality. The prize is the most generous there is for teenage poetry, and the judges are part of Britain's established poets. This year's competition (the tenth since the launch of the prize) was 'Promises'. Over 1000 students from across the UK, and born between 1991 and 1993, were inspired with the topic and submitted their entries. At a lunchtime reception, as part of The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, in Christ Church on Wednesday 24 March seventeen year-old Emily Harrison, from Cirencester College, Gloucestershire, won the £3,000 first prize for her poem Love Has No Larynx. The judges, the poets Stephen Romer, Michael Schmidt and Peter McDonald said that: 'Judging was difficult because of the general standard of entries. We were pleased to see that the final six poems are so various in form and theme.' The winner of the second (£1,000) prize is Katie Woods (John Taylor High School, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire) with Selkie and the third prizewinner (£500) is Megan Owens (Farlingaye High School, Woodbridge, Suffolk) with Jane Loudon. The other short-listed winners, who each received £250 were: Jamie Sutherland (Winchester College, Hampshire) with Dear Dad, Julia Goroszeniuk (St Paul's Girls' School, London) with A Portrait Painted Scarfless, and Hugo Havranek (St Paul's School, London) with Sign Language. The Christopher Tower poetry competition has a reputation for discovering fresh and exciting poetry talent and is just one of the initiatives developed by Tower Poetry at Christ Church to encourage the writing and reading of poetry by young adults. Other projects include summer schools, poetry readings and conferences, an ongoing publication programme including the launch at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival of A Tower Miscellany edited by Peter McDonald and a newly redesigned website which is used as an educational resource in schools. All the winning poems are on the Tower Poetry website with their young authors reading their own poems (www.towerpoetry.org.uk), and further information on the competition and other Tower projects can be obtained from info@towerpoetry.org.uk or on 01865 286591. Note to editors: The Christopher Tower Poetry Prizes were launched following a bequest to Christ Church, Oxford, which provides for the promotion of the art of writing poetry in English. The prizes aim to encourage the writing of poetry amongst young people in the 16-18 year-old age group by establishing an annual set of prizes on a given theme. (1)Stephen Romer's poetry collections include Idols (1986); Plato's Ladder (1992); and Tribute (1998). His latest collection of poetry is Yellow Studio (2008) which was shortlisted for the 2008 T.S. Eliot Prize. (2)Michael Schmidt, the editor of PN Review and Professor of Poetry in the Department of English, University of Glasgow. His most recent anthology, The Great Modern Poets, was published by Quercus on National Poetry Day 2006. His collection of poems The Resurrection of the Body was published in January 2007. (3)Peter McDonald has lectured at Pembroke College, Cambridge and the University of Bristol. In 1999, he became the first holder of the Christopher Tower Studentship (i.e. fellowship) and Tutorship in Poetry in the English Language at Christ Church, Oxford, also holding a lectureship in the English Faculty of Oxford University. His publications include Louis MacNeice: The Poet in his Contexts (1991), Mistaken Identities: Poetry and Northern Ireland (1997), Pastorals (2004) and The House of Clay (2007).
www.towerpoetry.org.uk
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