The 11^th Christopher Tower Poetry Prize competition’s theme was ‘Simplicity’.  The entrants (all born between 1992 and 1994) came from every part of the UK.

At an evening reception in the House of Commons on Monday 9 May, eighteen year-old Elizabeth Johnson, from Farlingaye High School, Suffolk, won the £3,000 first prize for her poem Wires. The judges were the poets Frances Leviston, David Morley and Peter McDonald.

The winner of the second (£1,000) prize is Jack Westmore, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College, London) with Shipbreakers and the third prizewinner (£500) is Abigail Richards (King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls, Birmingham) with Simple.

The other short-listed winners, who each received £250 were: James Browning (Wells Cathedral School, Somerset) with How Brando is Famous, Thomas Fraser (Harrow School, Middlesex) with Very Simply the Sound It Makes, and Molly Underwood (The Perse Upper School, Cambridge) with The Breaking Day.

Now in its eleventh 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. Previous prizewinners such as Caroline Bird, Helen Mort, Richard O’Brien, Charlotte Runcie, Anna Lewis and Annie Katchinska are now gaining further acclaim in other competitions or within the publishing/ writing world. The competition 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 and 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 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or on 01865 286591. 

View photos of the event

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) David Morley is the award-winning writer of nine books of poetry and the editor of six anthologies of new fiction and poetry. He writes criticism, essays and reviews for The Guardian, PN Review and Poetry Review. His next book of poems is Enchantment from Carcanet in November this year.  He has published a book of Romany poems The Invisible Kings, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing. David is Director of the Warwick Writing Programme at The University of Warwick where he is Professor of Writing and Director of the Warwick Prize for Writing.

(2) Frances Leviston was born in Edinburgh, and grew up in Sheffield. She read English at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, where she won the Lord Alfred Douglas Prize for Poetry in 2003. She received an Eric Gregory Award in 2006. Her first collection, Public Dream, was published by Picador in 2007 and was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and the Jerwood-Aldeburgh Prize. She has worked as a bookseller, a secretary, a writing tutor, and a snowboarding instructor, and has reviewed poetry for publications including the TLS, the Guardian, and the Yorkshire Post.

(3) Peter McDonald is the Christopher Tower Student and Tutor in Poetry in the English Language at Christ Church, Oxford.  His latest book of poetry is Torchlight published by Carcanet Press.