Summer School 2012
The 8th Tower Poetry Summer School for young poets aged 18-23 will be held in Christ Church, Oxford from 28-31 August 2012. The tutors will be Alan Gillis (University of Edinburgh, Scotland) and Kevin Young (Emory University, Atlanta, USA).
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| Press Release |
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The Tenth Christopher Tower Poetry Prize competition's theme was 'Promises'. The entrants over 1000, (all born between 1991 and 1993) from every part of the UK, were inspired with the topic and produced many poems with the hint of promise. 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. In addition to the presentation of prizes at the reception, Heather Uren, accompanied by Guy Newbury, gave a first performance of Feather-small and still, composed by Jonathan Pitkin. The poem, Villanelle, written by Sophie Stephenson-Wright was one of the winning poems from the 2009 competition and was chosen to be set to music by Dr Stephen Darlington and Dr Peter McDonald. Now in its tenth year, the Christopher Tower poetry competition is one of the most prestigious poetry competitions in the UK, with a reputation for discovering fresh and exciting poetry talent. It 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. |
About Tower Poetry
Tower Poetry exists to encourage and challenge everyone who reads or writes poetry. Funded by a generous bequest to Christ Church, Oxford, by the late Christopher Tower, the aims of Tower Poetry are clear: to stimulate an enjoyment and critical appreciation of poetry, particularly among young people in education, and to challenge people to write their own poetry. Creative writing should be a central element in literary education, and learning about writing poetry can help students to think about ways of reading poetry.
Publications
Poems from the 7th Tower Poetry Summer School 2010
Edited by Daljit Nagra and Jo Shapcott
The Twelve contains 56 poems from the 12 young poets who attended the Summer School.