Young Poets’ Stories is a research project led by poets and researchers Sue Dymoke and Anthony Wilson which explores the development stories of a sample group of young poets who have been award-winning and highly commended entrants in The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, a well established international, competition run by The Poetry Society that has been running for 20 years.

Funded by The Foyle Foundation with support from Nottingham Trent University and the University of Exeter, the project investigates 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.

Exeter City of Literature will be working with the project to produce an event in late-2023, and are supporting adjacent work in the city.

As part of the project, a book is to be published with Bloomsbury in 2024 centred on Young Poets’ Stories research — they are looking for young poets from Cities of Literature to contribute!

Becoming a Poet: Young Poets’ Stories of Composition and Creative Development will include the voices, experiences, and draft materials of many exciting young poets from the UK and Internationally. The book will explore issues around the development of young writers’ identities as poets, their influences and mentors, views about poetry, poetry and young people’s mental health, writing routines, networks and environments, along with guidance on performance and publication opportunities.

Writing is already underway by many young writers. However, there are still a few short chapter slots free. So, if you are a young poet aged 13- 25, who is beginning to break through into the poetry scene with some success in Slam, Spoken Word or page-based work then Sue & Anthony would like to talk to you about making a potential contribution to the book.

You will need to be writing in English and come from Nottingham, Manchester, Melbourne, Iowa, Lviv, Obidos, Exeter or any another UNESCO City of Literature around the world.

Please contact sue.dymoke@ntu.ac.uk if interested.

If you are under 18 please discuss this with your parents first and ask them to email Sue.