Young person with pink hair reading poem with microphone
©

Mirko Lux

6th poetry competition for school pupils with guest judge Francesca Beard

The British Council and Haus für Poesie are collaborating to host the sixth annual poetry competition for students in grades 6-12 in Germany, and we are delighted to announce this year’s winners. 

Prize winners:

1st Prize: Poems written in German 
Manisha Dietrich, aged 12, St. Ursula Realschule, Augsburg

1st Prize: Poems written in English
Sophia Babych, aged 15, Heidelberg International School

Joint 2nd Prize: Poems written in English 
Charlotte Yang, aged 13, Berlin Cosmopolitan School, Berlin
Maya Dsouza, aged 11, International School, Hannover

Special mentions: 

Class workshop with Francesca Beard (online) awarded to:

  • Werner von Siemens Gymnasium, Magdeburg
  • Julia Jantz, class teacher
  • Rudi Diederich, aged 17 
  • Fatima Elzobi, aged 18 
  • Bruno Lampe, aged 18 

Class workshop with Francesca Beard (onsite in Berlin) awarded to:

  • Phorms Campus Berlin Mitte and Phorms Campus Berlin Süd
  • Alison Buxton, class teacher
  • David Morten, class teacher
  • Mara Woltering, class teacher
  • Amalia Schwark
  • Marija Medovic
  • Benjamin Roberts
  • Emilia Naschke
  • Maria Necke
  • Maryam Zaher
  • Lene Dahlke
  • Faridat Agboola
  • Rovan Aygün
  • AL – name of pupil still to be confirmed
  • Marie-Cecile Gokel

Haus für Poesie poetry survival kits awarded to:

  • Tempyrance Adams, aged 13, Black Forest Academy, Kandern
  • Kokoe Adamah, aged 18, ProGenius Private Berufliche Schule, Böblingen
  • Preyasi Bansal, aged 15, Heidelberg International School, Heidelberg
  • Lola Li Bothe, aged 13, Schiller-Gymnasium, Berlin
  • Siya Gupta, aged 17, Leipzig International School, Leipzig
  • Priyankha Kamalakannan, aged 15, Franconian International School, Erlangen
  • Karolyn Missongo, aged 16, Ohm-Gymnasium, Erlangen
  • Marharyta Shtefliuk, aged 16, Michelberg-Gymnasium, Geislingen an der Steige
  • Hannah Sturmhöfel, aged 14, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium, Trier
  • Mia Runge, aged 14, ISF International School Frankfurt Rhein-Main, Frankfurt am Main
  • LL – name of pupil still to be confirmed

Haus für Poesie young poems workshop awarded to:

  • Habiba Hasan, aged 17, Friz-Bauer-Gesamtschule, Sankt Augustin
  • Katharina Köneke, aged 16, Leibniz-Gymnasium, Dortmund
  • Josie Kasimirova, aged 16, Landesgymnasium für Hochbegabte, Schwäbisch Gmünd
  • Tasnim Zairi, aged 17, Gymnasium Fallersleben, Wolfsburg

The winning poems will be published on our website soon. All participants will receive personalised feedback on their poems. Many congratulations to all those who took part, and in particular to all of our winners here!
______________________________________________________________________

The task

  • Pupils should write a poem in English or German that refers to and responds to the work 'Give thanks' by Francesca Beard and reflects on the theme of 'Gratitude'. 'Give thanks' can be read on LyrikLine here and downloaded as a pdf below. 
  • Poems must be submitted as text and may also be submitted as a video if desired.

Submitted poems should:

  • Be written in English or German
  • Not exceed 50 lines

Eligibility and rules:

  • You must be a pupil at a school in Germany.
  • You must be in grades 6-12 at the time of writing your poem.

This year's judge: Francesca Beard

Francesca Beard is a performance poet who collaborates with diverse people throughout the UK and abroad to share stories about what it is to be human. She is currently developing a new piece, ‘Confabulation’, about the future of memory, supported by Arts Council, England.

Her first solo show, ‘Chinese Whispers’, produced by Apples and Snakes in 2002, was seen as ground-breaking in its approach to performance poetry as a cross-arts form. Since then, she's written short plays for The Royal Court and BBC Radios 3 and 4, worked with The Young Vic and ICT to create participatory community-led shows and held research residencies at Banff, Canada and The Mixed Reality Lab, Nottingham University, to develop story-telling platforms for live and on-line audiences with B3 Media and Kings Cultural Institute.

She is a current Associate Artist with All Change, who lead the field in building long term relationships with communities to make and share outstanding creative work and has been poet in residence at The Barbican, BBC White City, The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kingston Library, the Natural History Museum and The Metropolitan Police and a guest lecturer in creative writing at the University of Westminster.

She trained as a workshop facilitator with Apples and Snakes through their Poets In Education scheme and has over twenty years experience as a creative practitioner in primary and secondary schools as well as libraries, hospitals, prisons and other institutions.

She has represented contemporary UK literature with the British Council in 23 different countries, from a jazz café in Azerbaijan, to a Bangkok shopping mall, in a Colombian prison to Zimbabwe’s National Library, working with Femrite, a Ugandan activist women’s literature organisation to create a public performance for the National Theatre in Kampala and with Makaan Arts and Culture, to create the first ever student-led cross arts theatre show in Khartoum.

Her work is often research-informed and inspired by emerging knowledge about ourselves and the universe.

www.francescabeard.com

More about Francesca Beard can be found here.
Share this