It is with great pleasure that the Student Union can now bring you the results of the first Birkbeck Students' Union Poetry competition. Our judges, Birkbeck creative writing academic Stephen Willey and Kate Rowland, ex-head of creative writing for the BBC, were incredibly impressed by the standard and number of submissions we received from across the community. Many thanks to our Education Officer Hattie for the great idea and running the project!
There was a wide range and diversity of style, all showing great ambition and effort. The judges noted the diversity and breadth of topics that students chose to explore in there writing, from sustainability, to grief and the tragedy of Grenfell tower. All topics were covered were done so with real care, dignity and creativity.
Congratulations to all who entered, we hope it inspired you to write further!
The winners:
First place: Sea Glass by by Meghan Hill
Second place: Floor 21 by Rodger Stephenson
Third place: I cannot hear the birds by Katrina Petro
Read our winning poems here!
Highly commended entries:
Due to the high standard and number of submission the judges also took the decision to ‘highly commend’ the following four poems:
- GOAT by Peppe Berardino
- Swallowed silk by Missy Isaackson
- What's in a name by Daniel Hatton-Johnson
- Study Buddy by Henry McDonald
Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in the competition, your work will be collated into an online anthology and shared on the Student Union website. We would love to invite all staff and students to join the judges and winners for a live performance of both the winning and commended poems in the new year, keep an eye out for the date which will be released next week!