Hampshire Young Poets is a competition, created in partnership with both Hampshire Cultural Trust (HCT) and Winchester Poetry Festival. Last year, the awards ceremony took place on Saturday 8 October at The Arc, Winchester. Entries were received from across the county and were judged in three age groups by Hampshire Poet, Nazneen Ahmed Pathak.
The competition is open to young people who live or study in Hampshire in three age categories, 4-7, 8-11 and 12-16 years. Entries last year were received from both individuals and schools and from all four corners of the county, from Fareham to Romsey, Waterlooville, Southampton, Andover, Basingstoke and Winchester.
The competition is free to enter and invited entrants to write a poem on the theme of Jubilee, inspired by celebration, togetherness or for last year’s Platinum Jubilee, with the top entries in each category receiving National Book Tokens as prizes, as well as P&G Wells tokens for the schools of the winning entrants.
Today is National Poetry Day and ahead of our presentation morning for our Hampshire Young Poets 2023 winners on 14 October, we thought we'd take a look back at last years winning poems. Here are the winning entries.
4 - 7 Years
First place: #The Queen, Leonardo Rogers
Second place: It's the Jubilee!, Nia Matthews
8 - 11 Years
First place: The Jubilee, Clover Mason
Second place: The Jubilee, Layal Soudi
Third place: Red, White and Blue, Isabelle Evans
12 - 16 years
First place: The Wave, Molly Towgood
Second place: Reflection from Platinum Jubilee, Ffion Turberfield
Third place: Jubilee Celebration, Bea Underwood-Russell
For more information about the Hampshire Young Poets competition, follow the link below.
