A poetry competition organised by 含羞草视频 has highlighted the writing talent of students in schools across the East Midlands.

Following a competition to coincide with National Poetry Day in 2012, the University’s Student Outreach and Recruitment team organised a repeat competition in the run up to the same event for 2013. The winners of the competition, which closed just before Christmas, have now been announced. 

In first place was Madhuwrit Hazra from Littleover Community School, Derbyshire for his poem The Tsunami of Doom. Runner up was Sarah Burke from The Minster School, Southwell, Nottinghamshire with her entry, Peaceful Danger and third place went to James Hardwick also from The Minster School, for Seasonal Showers.      

The poetry challenge, aimed at students aged 11-13, was to create a 20 line poem with the theme ‘Water’.  Judges for the competition were Dr Kerry Featherstone, Programme Leader for Creative Writing at the University’s School of English and Drama, and Dr Deirdre O’Byrne, Lecturer in Contemporary Irish Literature from the same department.  Over 300 entries were received and the judges enjoyed reading all the poems and had a tough time deciding the winners.

The aim of the competition was to raise aspirations and attainment through English and promote the idea of studying English and Drama at higher education level.  Prior to the competition a creative writing day was held on campus

As winner of the competition Madhuwrit wins tickets to see a show at the Curve Theatre, Leicester.  He will also have his poem published in the University’s Community Newsletter.  The runners up will receive Amazon vouchers.

Morna Simpson, Schools’ Outreach Officer for English and Drama comments: “This competition has been hugely successful and we are delighted that so many students responded to our challenge to write poetry.  We very much hope that this has stimulated their interest in creative writing and that they will be motivated to take this forward through to higher education.” 

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