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Foyle Young Poets – A winner tells his story…

The Poetry Society's Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award has established itself as the key award for young writers aged 11-17. This year's top 15 Winners, and 85 Commendeds were chosen by Jane Draycott and Luke Kennard from over 20,000 entries. The 2010 Foyle Young Poets are officially announced on National Poetry Day, as part of a day of poetry at London's Southbank Centre. Winner of the Competition for two years running, 17 year-old Dom Hale from Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire, explains what it has meant for him:


"Winning the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2009 was nothing short of an absolutely remarkable surprise. Having only begun seriously putting pen to paper to write poetry about half a year before entering the competition, (and only submitting a handful of poems I thought were ok on a barmy whim) I had, shamefully, half-forgotten about the Foyle Award until I received a letter. Indeed, I had been selected as one of the winners. The feeling was of course a kind of bizarre, dream-like elation, and also a very encouraging hint that perhaps I wasn't too bad at this poetry thing after all.

Next thing I knew, I was shimmying around London, haplessly in thrall to the mysticism of the Oyster card and timidly meeting wonderful judges Lemn Sissay and Selima Hill. Then there were all these fellow winners, who weren't, it turned out, the portentous ancestors of Byrons and Donnes, but a cluster of equally bashful teenagers who just so happened to be very talented poets. Indeed, their poems made me feel an inept amateur in comparison, but it turned out afterwards (much to my relief) that we all thought exactly the same and were in awe of each other's work.

The following February came the real reason why winning the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award must certainly be the best thing that can happen to an aspiring young poet. When I found out that my prize was to attend ‘a week's residential course' at a house called ‘The Hurst' in the Shropshire countryside on an ‘Arvon course', I must confess I had no idea what to expect. And, naturally, it transpired to be simply one of the best experiences of my life so far. The other winners and I were magnificently thrown together in this strikingly handsome 18th century building ringed in patchwork hills sprawling in snow. Sometimes, for me personally, it's sadly a little easy to forget that places of such beauty exist in England nowadays, but there I was, one foot in a fairy tale.

What followed was a week of creative ardour spent writing, reading and sharing poetry with brilliant like-minded youngsters alongside the friendly assistance of the extraordinary and utterly inspirational poets Lemn Sissay and Caroline Bird. I wrote probably some of the best poems I've ever written. I met some of the most brilliant, charismatic people I'm ever likely to meet whom I am still in touch with. I stayed up until all hours in one of the Hurst's many cosy libraries watching trippy old videos of Aardman animations and Tots TV. Arvon was essentially akin to nothing else I've ever done, and returning home and into ‘everyday life' half felt like I was re-emerging through the looking glass and was odd to adjust to at first.

More than anything else, winning the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award has helped fuel my passion for poetry even further while discovering and honing my own voice with the inspiring support of other same-wave-lengthers. Marvellous."


Dom Hale is once again one of the top fifteen Foyle Young Poets of the Year 2010. The 2011 Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award opens for entries in March 2011. The closing date will be 31st July 2011. To read the winning poems and for further information, visit www.foyleyoungpoets.org.