Poet in Residence

Each September, we welcome award-winning writer, Frances Leviston, to deliver a range of workshops, talks and 1:1 sessions with pupils across the Senior School.

This term she has been teaching students to be freer with their creativity and to edit their own work. After reading English at Oxford and following an MA in Writing, Frances’ first collection of poetry (‘Disinformation’) was published over a decade ago. Her poems have since appeared in the London Review of Books, the TLS, the Guardian, The Times and various anthologies.  This was Frances’ eighth visit to South Hampstead as poet in residence.

Frances also ran a creative writing competition, on the theme of ‘hiding’. The topic inspired a wealth of imaginative entries. Congratulations to all those who entered.  In the Upper School category, Frances selected ‘Lakebed’, a story by Megan in Year 11, and ‘Ennui’, a poem by Upper Sixth student Ella, as her winners. Frances commented on the careful exploration of identity in Megan’s writing and its close attention to physical experience. Frances described Ella’s poem as “a very successful mood poem” which captures a sort of teenage dreaminess. Natasha and Sonja from Year 11 and Eleanor in Year 10 were also commended on their entries.

In the Lower School, top prizes were awarded to two Year 8 pupils: Lily, for her poem ‘Blind Bunny’s Brief for Madness’, and Mae for her story, ‘From Out of the Dark.’ Frances was impressed by Lily’s creation of the Blind Bunny as a strong symbolic presence and a mythic figure. She said that Mae’s story contained a beautifully-drawn world and a brilliantly-controlled shape. Commended Lower School entries were penned by Melita in Year 7, Alicia in Year 8 and Lucia, Eva, Sabrina and Anna in Year 9. All the selected poems and short stories are being put together in an anthology, available from the library soon.