THE POETRY Society has announced the top 15 winners and 85 commended poets in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2025.
Among the top 15 poets is Ellanya Sivasubramaniam, 15, from Reading.
At a special celebration held at The British Library, friends, family, poets and educators listened to readings from the top 15 writers, heard reflections from the judges and celebrated the best poems written by young people.
They came from all over the UK to celebrate their achievements and to meet their peers, and special guest, former Foyle Young Poet and winner of the Ted Hughes Award, Jay Bernard.
Competition judges Colette Bryce and Will Harris praised all the winners for their confidence, humour, invention, curiosity and intelligence.
Ellanya said: ‘Winning the Foyle Young Poets competition feels both surreal and affirming.
“I’ll never forget getting the call on my way back from school; I was completely starstruck and could hardly believe it was real.”
Devised and run by The Poetry Society, in partnership with The Foyle Foundation, the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is one of the world’s leading writing competitions for under 18s.
Young people from 135 countries took part, aged 11 to 17.
The top 15 winners will attend a week-long residential writing course at the Arvon centre, Shropshire, where they will focus on improving their poetry and establishing a community of writers under the guidance of professional poets.
All 100 winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award will receive further mentoring, a year’s youth membership of The Poetry Society and a goody bag full of books donated by generous sponsors.
The top 15 poems will be published in a printed winners’ anthology in spring 2026, and all 100 poems will appear online, showcasing the talent of the winners.
They will be distributed free to thousands of schools, libraries, reading groups and poetry lovers across the UK and the world.
Until then, our readers can enjoy Ellanya’s winning poem below.
Ellanya Sivasubramaniam
The Girls Who Grow Antlers
In late August,
three girls in school sprout antlers.
Not metaphor. Bone.
First, a bud like a bruise
above the brow.
Then branching – silent, slow,
like trees deciding
where to reach.
By September,
they wear them like crowns
no one asked for.
We pretend not to notice
how they duck through doorways,
how their sweaters fray
where the velvet snags.
The teachers hold meetings.
The nurse takes photos ‘for records.’
One girl stops coming.
Another tries to saw hers off
with a bread knife.
Leaves maths early,
blood blooming through her fringe
like another kind of signal.
One lets them grow wild.
Loops fairy lights
through the tips in winter.
Laughs when they call her stag.
No one speaks of how it started.
Or if it hurts.
But in the toilets,
we check our foreheads
like clocks,
press our fingers to skin
for the start
of something sharp.
For information, visit: poetrysociety.org.uk and foylefoundation.org.uk
