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2024 Young Poets Competition Shortlist

Congratulations to our 2024 Young Poets Shortlisted Entries

5 year waitlistAlexandra Conroy-Gent
AntoinetteAliyah Zaranyika
Bleeding From ExcitementSofia Barrios
Divinity or Simplicity of SisterhoodPippa Ann Day
figures of lightJasmine Morgan
First World LamentDaisy Stewart Henderson
Harsh LovingRowan Imogen Brown
HummingbirdMatt Niedzielski
(IN A TESCO, IN KETTERING)Iain Lynn
Loch FyneMillie Caldeira-Dunkerley
My Father and his HometownArwen Amin
Night StarsOshadha Perera
PenelopeImogen Cornish
Reversal of FortunesEleanor Harvey
SeventeenAva Pardue
ode to the dent you left in the sofaSylvan Restarickode
Who Switched the Lights OffMillie Caldeira-Dunkerley   
Why does it have to be this way?Megan Ashfield
Willow Weep for YouWilliam George Marshall
Clare Shaw Photo

Clare Shaw will be judging this year’s Young Poets Competition. She has four poetry collections with Bloodaxe. The latest collection – Towards a General Theory of Love (2022) – is a poetic exploration of love and love’s absence: it won a Northern Writers’ Award and was a Poetry Society Book of the Year.

Clare lectures at the University of Huddersfield, and runs courses for Wordsworth Grasmere, the Royal Literary Fund and the Arvon Foundation.

Clare is a dynamic and popular performer who has also written and presented for BBC Radio 3 and 4. A passionate advocate for accessibility in poetry, and for poetry as a tool of personal and social change, Clare has founded or directed numerous poetry initiatives including the Kendal Poetry Festival, Wonky Animals, the Lost Things Project and many more.

Prize Giving and Poetry Reading takes place on Friday 25 October starting at 10am as part of the Festival.

Book your ticket here.