The Christopher Tower Poetry Summer School
Christ Church, Oxford
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.
