Christopher Tower Poetry Prize winners named

Established poets have recognised the teenagers taking their first steps in the form at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival.

Stephen Romer, Michael Schmidt and Peter McDonald hosted a lunchtime reception at the event which named 17-year-old Emily Harrison the winner of the Christopher Tower Poetry Prize for Sixth Formers.

Harrison, who attends Cirencester College in Gloucestershire, impressed the judges with her poem Love Has No Larynx and received a GBP 3,000 prize.

Katie Woods of Staffordshire took home GBP 1,000 when her poem Selkie came in second, while Suffolk's Megan Owens won GBP 500 for third-placed Jane Loudon.

The other finalists, who received GBP 250 each, were Hampshire's Jamie Sutherland, Julia Goroszeniuk and Hugo Havranek, both from London.

'Judging was difficult because of the general standard of entries. We were pleased to see that the final six poems are so various in form and theme,' the judging panel commented.

Last year's Christopher Tower Poetry Prize, which was judged by McDonald, Jane Draycott and Daljit Nagra, was won by 17-year-old Timothy Carson from Belfast for his poem Is Life Likely?.