Poetry Outreach
Tower Poetry is committed to inspiring young people to engage with, and enjoy, poetry in all its forms. To achieve this, a range of resources and opportunities are offered by Tower Poetry to help make poetry accessible to all.
Tower Poetry Competition
The annual Tower Poetry competition is the most generous of its kind, offering a total of £5000 in prize money each year to six young poets and a further £150 per winning school. Hundreds of aspiring poets from across the UK enter each year, writing up to 48 lines on the set theme.
Tower Poetry Educational Resources
Following the temporary closure of British schools owing to COVID-19, Professor Peter McDonald produced a short series of Tower Poetry talks on particular poems that are often studied at A-Level. These resources are freely available on Tower Poetry's YouTube channel.
Tower Poetry Summer Schools
Tower Poetry's biennial summer schools offer 18-23 year olds the opportunity to deepen their understanding of poetry, network with other young poets, and develop their own poetic voice with support from established, professional poets. Applicants to the residential summer school are accepted on the basis of their written work; tuition and accommodation costs are funded by Tower Poetry.
Access & Outreach Initiatives - Christ Church
Tower Poetry supports the Horizons Programme run by Christ Church's Admissions & Access team, which is targeted at state schools and colleges in Christ Church's London link area, Barnet. In 2019, over 70 students participated in a series of poetry workshops which encouraged them to think about what poetry is and what poetry means to them. The sessions were designed to challenge existing conceptions about poetry, and to help students explore poetry's relevance in the modern world.
Recently, the Tower Poetry Administrator participated in the Christ Church Tuesday Tasters programme, discussing early medieval poetry with students from non-selective state schools in Christ Church's link areas. The academic tasters enable students to engage with material beyond the educational curriculum; the session on poetry also helped to foster a deeper appreciation of poetry and literature.
Useful Links
The list below suggests a few starting points for young people and teachers to discover more about poetry.
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Arts Festival sites
FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival
www.oxfordliteraryfestival.org/about
Held annually in spring, there are children and schools events as well as creative writing programmes.Latitude
www.latitudefestival.com
Annual music festival with growing poetry events held in Suffolk.Ledbury Poetry Festival
www.poetry-festival.co.uk
Annual ten-day poetry festival held in July in Herefordshire.The Poetry Trust
www.thepoetrytrust.org
Delivers from Suffolk a year-round live and digital programme, creative education opportunities, courses, prizes and publications. -
Competitions
Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award
www.poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions
Poetry prize organised by the Poetry Society for writers aged 11-17.
Poetry by Heart
www.poetrybyheart.org.uk
A free national poetry recitation competition for 7-18 year olds at school in England, with a website of poetry collections and useful resources for students and teachers. -
Have You Read?
Tower Poetry celebrates poetry; and celebrating poetry means celebrating diversity. Poetic tradition is enormous, and capacious: it is a standing rebuke to the injustices and prejudices of the world. We've put together a short introductory selection of links to the lives and work of important poets who were or are people of colour, and we share them here, to show something of the resistant strength of poetry in the world. Happy discoveries!
- Audre Lorde
- Ben Okri
- Benjamin Zephaniah
- Danez Smith
- Deanna Rodger
- Derek Walcott
- Erica Hunt
- Grace Nichols
- Gwendolyn Brooks
- James Baldwin
- James Berry
- Jay Bernard
- Jericho Brown
- John Agard
- June Jordan
- Karisma Price
- Kiki Petrosino
- Langston Hughes
- Lucille Clifton
- Maya Angelou
- Nikky Finney
- Porsha Olayiwola
- Raymond Antrobus
- Rita Dove
- Valerie Bloom
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Magazines
The Gallery Press
www.gallerypress.com
Publishes poetry, drama and prose by some of Ireland’s leading contemporary writers.Oxford Poetry
www.oxfordpoetry.co.uk
Published twice a year, Oxford Poetry is the oldest poetry magazine in the world.The Poetry Kit
www.poetrykit.org
A comprehensive online resource for poets including listings of competitions, courses and events. -
Resources for Poets
Centre for Literacy - Advice for Young Poets
www.clpe.org.uk/poetryline/poet-interviews/what-advice-would-you-give-budding-poets
Interviews from renowned poets and writers aimed at aspiring young poets.The Guardian Poetry Workshop
www.theguardian.com/books/series/poetryworkshop
Each month a different poet sets a writing exercise and chooses their favourite responses.Sit Down and Write
www.seatup.com/blog/sit-down-and-write-poetry-resources
Tips for budding poets.Young Poets Network
https://ypn.poetrysociety.org.uk/
The Poetry Society’s online platform for young poets up to the age of 25. -
Resources for Teachers
National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE)
Supports the development of creative writing of all genres and in all educational and community settings throughout the UK.
National Poetry Library
www.nationalpoetrylibrary.org.uk/
Housing the Arts Council Collection at South Bank Centre, London.Poetry Archive
www.poetryarchive.org
The Poetry Archive is the world’s premier online collection of recordings of poets reading their work.Poetry Book Society
www.poetrybooks.co.uk
Founded by T S Eliot in 1953, the PBS provides information, advice, and discounts on poetry books.Poetry Class
www.poetryclass.net
A collection of learning resources from The Poetry Society.Teachit
www.teachit.co.uk
An English teaching online site with almost 12,000 resources. -
Oxford's Poetry Scene
Christ Church, University of Oxford
www.chch.ox.ac.uk
Home of Tower Poetry.Clutag Press
www.clutagpress.com
A small but prestigious poetry press sponsored, in part, by Tower Poetry.University of Oxford
www.ox.ac.uk
Find poetry debates and the Professor of Poetry’s public lectures each term on the university's site.Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre
www.brookes.ac.uk/poetry-centre
For research and discussion of issues surrounding twentieth and twenty-first Century poetry; to promote poetry in the local community and to encourage connections between poets, academics and readers of poetry.