We are all incredibly proud of Year 9 student Anja Livesey who has been announced as a top 15 Foyle Young Poets of the Year 2021.
Drawing on the feelings and emotions she experienced during the pandemic, Anja’s winning entry was selected from a total of 14408 poems submitted by 6775 young people from 109 countries across the world. When Anja heard the news she said “I was very shocked as I didn’t expect to get so far. This whole experience has been really exhilarating for me, and I feel so proud of myself for what I’ve achieved”.
You can read all about this year’s award and Anja’s amazing achievement here https://poetrysociety.org.uk/news/foyle-young-poets-of-the-year-award-2021-winners-announced/
Anja was also surprised to be asked to appear on BBC Radio Nottingham the day after the awards ceremony. You can catch her interview on BBC Radio Nottingham at https://bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09vv0zp , it starts at 2:21:02.
Anja is now looking forward to joining the other top poets and developing her writing skills further at a residential writing course in February 2022, and we cannot wait to receive our copy of the winners’ anthology when it is published next year.