Many congratulations to Savanna in Year 1, Jessica in Year 11, and Kitty in Year 13 for winning the GDST Laurie Magnus Poetry Prize in their respective categories.
The Laurie Magnus Poetry Prize is one of the GDST’s longest-running and most prestigious inter-school prizes, established in memory of Sir Laurie Magnus who was a GDST Council member from 1907, and Chairman from 1929 until his death in 1933.
Each school puts forward one entry for each of the six age categories, therefore selection is highly selective. This year, the poems were judged by Sydenham High School alumna and prize-winning poet & author Claudia Daventry.
What an incredible achievement for Savanna, Jessica, and Kitty! You can read their winning poems below by clicking on the title:
Years 1 & 2 Winner: Savanna – ‘Aliens on Planet Gurgle’
Of Savanna’s poem, Claudia really enjoyed reading about the alien who talks to her friends by gurgling water and wears ‘green dinosaur pants’!
Years 10 & 11 Winner: Jessica – ‘I Want To’
As the winner of this category, Claudia praised Jessica’s entry for being “a bold and honest prose poem, economical yet eloquent. Jessica writes with a lovely undercurrent of irony as the poet recognises her persona’s lie.”
Years 12 & 13 Winner: Kitty – ‘Thank you note to my mother’
Claudia commented that Kitty’s entry was “a muscular poem brimming with quiet energy which, the more you read it, reveals ever-odder layers. A fine poem.”