A Call Out for Foyle Young Poets

If you are a young writer who either won or received a highly commended award in The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award during 2012-2019 we would like you to think about taking part in our exciting new research project Young Poets’ Stories.

We do hope it interests you and that it will benefit future young poets.

Young Poets’ Stories is a research project led by poets and researchers Sue Dymoke and Anthony Wilson. It is funded by the Foyle Foundation with support from our two universities (Nottingham Trent University and the University of Exeter). During the next two years we are investigating a rarely explored aspect of poetry writing development: the potential impact of mentoring opportunities on young poets (aged 11 – 30) who were award-winning and/or highly commended entrants in The Foyle Young Poets of the Year 2012-2019 i.e. writers like you….

We would like to capture the development of these poets in the early stages of their writing, after success in the competition. We plan to do so through two sets of online interviews and discussions of examples of the poets’ writing with thirty young poets in 2020 and 2021 along with observations of a separate group of poets. We want to write a series of case studies and web-based resources which will add to what is known about poetry writing theory and the practice of mentoring young writers. We hope that the new understandings gleaned from our research will directly benefit young writers including many young people who may be unaware of the significant opportunities that the Foyle Young Poets Award could offer them.

If you would like to participate please register your interest as outlined below:

If you are over 18 and would like to participate, please read the fuller project details here complete the registration form on page 3 and send it to sue.dymoke@ntu.ac.uk

If you are under 18, please read and discuss the fuller project details here with your parent or carer. Then ask them to complete and submit the registration of interest form on page 4 included on your behalf and send it to sue.dymoke@ntu.ac.uk

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Sue Dymoke and Anthony Wilson