Forward Young Responses

Help your students read between the lines and receive a free copy of The Forward Book of Poetry 2016

The Forward competition is a really vibrant and real-life engagement with contemporary poetry - Celia Shephard, Manchester Grammar School

Your competition helped me encourage learners who are often reluctant to share their work in class - Laura Stevenson,  Eggar's School

The students enjoyed the competition so much, and were really excited by it - Stuart Bird, Surbiton High School

A great way of getting contemporary poetry into the classroom: a much-needed and often neglected experience for students - Jane Bluett, Bilborough Sixth Form College

The best contemporary poetry has the power to open young ears and eyes. Its language - or, frequently, languages -  speaks to readers of the present we all inhabit, and provides fresh ways into writing, reading and creative understanding. Use this competition to encourage your pupils to relish poetry's power to change the way we see and shape our worlds.

This year’s Forward Young Responses competition – deadline 12 February 2016 – welcomes entries from students in KS3, KS4 and KS5 (age 11 - 18). For the second time, we invite creative as well as critical responses.  Here’s a set of 11 poems shortlisted for the Forward Prizes 2015 to download and print. They include work by the shortlisted poets including Paul Muldoon, Claudia Rankine, Sarah Howe, Andrew McMillan and others.

To students

Show us why this poem stands out

We are looking for excellent critical and/or creative responses to selected works by poets shortlisted for the 2015 Forward Prizes for Poetry (Best Collection category and Best First Collection category).

Respond to any one of them as creatively as possible: compose a poem, create a poster, make a short film, set the poem to music or simply write a brilliant critique. The winning entries will illuminate the poem, bringing out facets that may not be immediately apparent. What is it about the poem - its form, voice, language, attitude and subject - that catches the attention and inspires responses? We seek vivid and perceptive work showing that you have noticed how the poem's precision engineering works and are alive to its emotional resonance. We are NOT looking for examiner-pleasing tick-box lists of metaphors or rhyme schemes.

Send in the entries via the form below: if you have any difficulties, contact us on info@forwardartsfoundation.org or call us on 020 7845 4655 or write to us on Young Responses, Forward Arts Foundation, c/o Royal Society of Literature, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA and we will help.

Guidelines

A critique should be no longer than 750 words. A poem can be any length. The poster should be A3 size, but can be sent in as a digital image. Any film or recording should be no longer than a minute.

Please note: your entry MUST be a response to one of the eleven poems selected from this year's Forward Prizes. Please state clearly on your entry which poem you are responding to. 

The competition is open to students in Key Stages 3 to 5 and is free to enter. Entries can be individual or submitted as a group of students. Please ensure that all uploaded files are marked somewhere with the name of the student. Students must live in the UK or Republic of Ireland. 

You can submit either as a teacher, on behalf of your students, or by yourself as a student. If submitting as a student, contact us directly and we will send you a form.