The winners of the fourth Torbay Libraries Poetry competition will be presented with their prizes and will be reading their poems at a special prize giving on Friday 24 October as part of the Torbay Festival of Poetry.

Once again children and young people from across the bay entered the competition, and with an increase of 19% in the number of entries received and the high quality of the poetry entered made judging of the poems a very enjoyable but difficult task.

The judges were particularly moved by poems on the theme of the First World War and decided to award two special prizes for this category.

The prize giving is a real celebration for the young people where they are invited to read at the same festival that has featured some of the best loved poets from all over the UK, including Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

The names and ages of the winners are as follows;

The winners in the 7 – 11 age category are:
First prize winner – Edward Colbert (age 9) from Brixham for his poem entitled ‘Stormy Seas’.
Second prize winner – Antonia Parkyn (age 7) from Torquay for her poem entitled ‘CATastrophe’.

Runners up / Highly commended;
Thomas Howard (age 9) from Churston.
Maya Allen (age 10) from Brixham.
Lauren Lock (age 8) from Brixham.

Special prize winner for the best poem on the theme of World War One was awarded to Katie Beard (age 8) from Paignton for her poem entitled ‘Poppies’.

The winners in the 12-16 age category are:
First prize winner – Sophie Webb (age 15) from Torquay for her poem entitled ‘When The Stars Belonged To Us’.

Special prize winner for the best poem on the theme of World War One was awarded to Lucy Lewis (age 13) from Torquay for her poem entitled ‘A Canine War’.

Councillor Nicole Amil, Executive Lead for Harbours, Culture and the Arts congratulated the winners saying: “Yet again our young people have proven that Torbay has got great talent in writing enjoyable poems. It’s fantastic to see the high standard and quality of their work shine through. Well done to all of the winners and everyone that took part.”