Sophie is master of the Uni Verse!

Date: 11/05/2012. Story submitted by: SuzanneRutter

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An award winning poem will be displayed in a city centre book shop after its author won a regional student poetry competition.

Sophie Foster, 17, of Notre Dame Sixth Form College in Leeds, won the Uni Verse for Schools Poetry Competition, organised by Sheffield Hallam University.

Her winning poem, Iambic Betrayal, will be displayed in the Orchard Square branch of Waterstones.

The competition was organised by Sheffield Hallam's outreach and UK recruitment development team to encourage young people to gain practical experience of creative writing.

It was run, for the first time, alongside the university's annual internal staff and student poetry competition.

Sophie, who wrote the poem following her parents' separation, said: "I'm really excited and shocked about winning. I write as a hobby in my spare time and I hope to study creative writing or English literature at university because I want to be a novelist or poet."

Entrants took part in workshops with staff at the university where they were able to learn about creative writing and get practical tips to help with them with their work.

The competition judging panel included poet Debjani Chatterjee, an honorary doctor of Sheffield Hallam.

She said: "What struck us was how playful a lot of the poems were, how language was used in creative ways to express themes on identity. We also admired the honesty of a number of the poems."

Wordsmiths Jed Dixon, 18, and Pagan Hollis, 18, from Bilborough College in Nottingham also scooped prizes for their entries.

The winners picked up their prizes at an award ceremony in Sheffield Hallam's Adsetts Learning Centre.

Additional info

Address: 24-26 Orchard Square Sheffield South Yorkshire S1 2FB

Tags: Sheffield Hallam University; Waterstones Sheffield; Uni Verse

Web link: http://www.shu.ac.uk/