A Swindon school pupil has beaten more than 6,000 poets across the world to be named 'Poet of the Year' in the 2024 awards.

Evie Lockwood, 12, attends Lydiard Park Academy in Swindon and is one of 6,600 young writers who submitted over 17,000 poems from around the world as part of the 2024 Foyle Young Poet Awards.

The competition, organised by The Poetry Society, is one of the leading writing competitions for young people and out of thousands of entrees aged 11 to 17, only 15 poets across the globe are picked as winners.

For Evie the competition was a chance to share an important message about transphobia.

The 12-year-old's winning poem titled 'Brandon' is in memory of Brandon Teena, an American transgender man who was raped and later murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska in 1993.

His life and death were the subject of the films 'The Brandon Teena Story' and 'Boys Don't Cry', and his murder led to increased lobbying for hate crime laws in the United States.

Evie Lockwood from Swindon is one of the top 15 young poets in the worldEvie Lockwood from Swindon is one of the top 15 young poets in the world (Image: Madden Mannock Photography) “It means the world to me to win the Foyle Young Poets award," said Evie.

"I have been writing for a very long time – privately, always hunched over the family computer, letting my ideas meander onto the document.”

Sharing Evie's winning poem, a spokesperson for Lydiard Park Academy said: "Our very own Evie is a top 15 winner.

"This is a huge achievement given 6,600 young writers from around the world entered this year.

"The top 15 winners and 85 commended poets were announced at a special celebration at The British Library in London as family, friends, poets and educators celebrated the best poems written by young people from across the world in 2024.

"It was the perfect setting to honour the young writers the judges praised as ‘the future stars of the poetry world’."

British poet Jack Underwood, who judged the competition alongside Vanessa Kisuule, added: “To see so many poems written by young people reassured me that poetry is healthier than ever, and continues to lure fresh minds into its weird, millennia-old conversation.

"Most of all I was impressed by how imaginatively and wholeheartedly these poets ventured into the world, asked questions, and replied to it: with tenderness, social conscience, and novelty of thought and phrase."

You can read Evie's winning poem, which will be published in a printed winners’ anthology in March 2025, below:

'Brandon' by Evie Lockwood

In memory of Brandon Teena

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