Young Poets Excel Again in Book Festival Competition

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This year's theme of 'Space' attracts 187 entries

The prize-winning young poets with their certificates. Picture: Roger Green

September 18, 2026

The Chiswick Book Festival Young Poet’s Competition celebrated its 16-year anniversary this year. Since 2011, the competition has become a fixture for local schools, with hundreds of young poets entering poems. The prize-giving is sponsored each year by Chiswickw4.com.

The competition is designed to celebrate and stimulate creativity and writing skills in children and young people. It is open to all children in Years 3-7, and unusually for many poetry competitions, prizes are awarded within each of the five year groups, so that children from different age groups are judged separately. Young poets are invited to write a poem at home, or at school, about whatever inspires them. This year the competition suggested the theme of “Space” to help spark ideas.

The competition had 187 entries from a from a wide range of state and private schools, including: Ark Byron Primary Academy Acton, Ada Lovelace, St Augustine’ s Priory, Heathfield House, Beavers Community Primary School, Southfield Primary School, The William Hogarth School, Bute House Prep, Orchard House School, St Peter’s Primary School, The Harrodian, Newland House School, Lionel Primary School.

St Michael’s and All Angels W4 once again hosted the prize-giving. The church was filled with 31happy prize winners, their parents and teachers,

Long time organisers and judges Nicola Kelly and James Pendle, alongside new teacher judges Lise Bentley from Beavers Community School and Charlotte Howell from Orchard House School, chatted to the winners and congratulated them on their skilfully written, entertaining poems. As always, the poems covered a mix of themes, with some young poets using this year’s theme of” Space” and others choosing their own topics.

The audience enjoyed a specially created ‘patchwork poem’ from lead judge, poet James Pendle, crafted entirely from the winning poems’ lines and imagery.

This year’s guest poet was Christopher Jarvis, poet and Hounslow Gifted Talent and Community Development Officer. Chris is passionate about “inspiring young people to explore their own creativity, find their voice and continue writing”. He was delighted to encourage the Young Poets and help empower their work.

As always, Chiswickw4.com sponsored the certificates and event. This year local book shop Everybody Reads  supplied the winners with generous book prizes. Carol Kosse from the store wrapped them up. Situated on Chiswick High Road, it describes itself as “a place to pause, breathe, browse, learn, discover, connect, giggle and grow”. From local author talks to monthly book clubs, it hosts a range of events for all book lovers—whether you prefer novellas, general fiction, or historical fiction.

To wrap up the prize-giving, the audience of young poets, parents, and teachers gave a heartfelt send-off to Carol Douglas and Susi Stanley-Carroll, who are retiring from the judging team this year. Both Carol (formerly an English teacher at Latymer Upper School) and Susi (a long-time English teacher at Chiswick and Bedford Park Preparatory School / Orchard House School) have been with the competition since day one. Nicola Kelly, a fellow judge and organiser from the original team, thanked them for 16 years of incredible service and presented them with flowers.

Retiring judges Carol Douglas and Susi Stanley-Carroll were presented with flowers. Picture: Roger Green

The winning poets were as follows:

Year	Prize Given	Name	Title of Poem
3	1	Pedro Pinheiro Matos	Exploring the Universe
3	2	Amelia Finch-Ryan	Space 2
3	3	Authur O'Sullivan	Speeding Down the Space Highway
3	c	Freddie Fallstrom	A Space Adventure with Me
3	c	Freddie Milner-Smith	The Universe
3	c	Rio Rapallini	Saving the Seven Stars
4	1	Maryam Kamran	Beyond the Last Star
4	2	Mabel Price	The Outside
4	3	Yara Awad	The Dancing World
4	c	Donya Rahnama	Space
4	c	Emma-Elise Brody	Outside Earth
5	1	Max Stone	There is space if you can imagine it
5	1	Katie Roshan	Veil of the Outer Dark
5	2	Althaea Kwasnicki	Earth
5	3	Lana Behrens	Cosmic Beauty
5	c	Cleopatra Wignarajah	The Space You Leave Behind
5	c	Emily Szymala	A Well Deserved Break
5	c	Shreya Patel	My Space Poem the fabric of twilight
5	c	Zadie Collier	Constellations
6	1	Zayn Abushahla	A Universe Inside Me
6	1	Nayla Oei	The Void
6	2	Sayed Sayed Zadah	Starbound
6	3	Wei Wei Liu	A Face Where Constellations Rest
6	3	Harry Hewitt	The Planets
6	c	India Goldsmith	A Little bit of space
7	1	Kevinka Mohanathas	Midnight Replies
7	1	Haruno Saito	The Celestial Sea
7	2	Lisa Barr	The Wonders of Space
7	2	Abigail Selvaratnam	I Am The Moon
7	3	Zachary Ditz	No Space
7	c	Tamara Ghouse	Space to Think: A River of Stars

 

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