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Tower Poetry,
Christ Church,
Oxford, OX1 1DP
Tel: 01865 286591
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| The Tower Poetry Summer School 2003 |
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July 2003 In July 2003, the first Christopher Tower Summer School was held at Christ Church. The young people who took part were all under twenty years old and had been invited on the strength of their success in poetry competitions: most had entered or won prizes in the annual Christopher Tower competition; others had achieved distinction in other events such as the Poetry Society/Foyle Young Poets of the Years awards. Over three days, the students worked with poets Polly Clark and Peter McDonald to produce poems relating to the story of the fall of Icarus. These have now been published in a pamphlet, Parachute Silk, which is available from the Tower Poetry office. The poems can also be read on this website. The feedback from the summer school students shows that they found it a valuable and stimulating experience; it gave them the time and space to focus on their own writing, and also developed their critical skills through the discussion of the other participants' work. The success of this first course was such that the Christopher Tower Summer School will become an annual event from 2005. Now read the Parachute Silk poems for yourselves |
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.