Poetry Bookshop Online

Anthologise shortlist announced

Posted: 24 July 2012

The competition was launched by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall in September 2011 and invitedschool students aged 11-18 to create their own anthologies of poetry.

The six shortlisted schools are:

Monkton Combe Senior School , Bath for The Poetry of Earth is Never Dead

Chesterton Community College , Cambridge for A Journey Through Life

Pakefield High School, Lowestoft for Pakefield's Pot of Powerful Poems

The Chase School, Malvern for Arrivals and Departures

Alexandra Park School , Muswell Hill for Lines of Life

The Cherwell School, Oxford for COGS: The Body in Fifty Poems and The Evolving Muse (two entries)


The winning school, whose anthology will be published by Picador in 2013, will be announced on 31 July.

The judges comprised Carol Ann Duffy; National Poet for Wales, Gillian Clarke; poet John Agard; poet Grace Nichols; and Cambridge Professor of Children's Poetry, Morag Styles.

Carol Ann Duffy comments:

"The judges were unanimous in their admiration of the shortlist of the seven shortlisted anthologies.

"Each contained a wonderful variety of poetry in terms of theme, form and language and each had its own voice with the poems speaking to each other. We were struck by how much contemporary poetry and native voices were included in the anthologies and impressed by the careful research pupils demonstrated in finding poems. There were also surprising choices and positioning of poems within the anthologies, the result of wide reading, the study of single poet collections.

"They also bore the mark of strong teacher/pupil relationships. Unless we have good teachers who are interested in poetry in all its forms, cultures and times, we cannot have good readers of poetry.

"The best anthologies show that the culture of the school, community and family allow the pupils to see their own lives
inside their chosen poems and their own experience spoken in the words of great poetry."

More information about the competition can be found at: www.anthologise.co.uk

For more information please contact Liz Sich at Four Colman Getty.


Anthologise is a Laureate Education project spearheaded by Carol Ann Duffy and administered by the Poetry Book Society. It is supported by Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan and Waterstones. Partners are: Bath Festivals, Manchester Children's Book Festival, Manchester Metropolitan University, Homerton College University of Cambridge, Saison Poetry Library, The Scottish Poetry Library, and Literature Wales.

Categories: Poetry Prizes

« Back to news