Wirral Poetry Festival Youth Poetry Competition 2026

Announcement of Results

The Wirral Poetry Festival team has just concluded its first Poetry Competition for young people aged between 11 and 18 years living and/or schooling in the Liverpool City Region. The competition is most generously sponsored by the Christopher Salmon Foundation in memory of Christopher Salmon a talented young poet who passed away very suddenly In Wirral, aged just 15 in 2009. Entrants were invited to submit short poems on the subject of “Home”. Information about the competition was sent to every secondary school and every public library in the Liverpool City Region and entries were received from every borough.

We are delighted now to announce that the winner of the first cash prize of £100 is Amjad Sharif aged 11 and a pupil of Oldershaw School, Wallasey, Wirral. There were two runners up who will each receive a cash prize of £25: Kai Lloyd Jones aged 12, who is home-schooled and comes from Liverpool 7; and Adriana Brandao, aged 17 from Upton Hall School, in Upton, Wirral. Prizes will be awarded at a special celebration event during the annual Wirral Poetry Festival in Port Sunlight on Sunday 4th October 2026.

The adjudicator, Judith Railton, wrote: “We thank all the entrants who shared their poems in this competition. You have brought us so many gifts to savour: of people – family and friends, a team, music, books, loss, separation, loneliness, displacement, comfort of everyday pleasures, an assistance dog, longing, humour, anguish. Home has conjured up so many different emotions and images.  When you send your work out into a competition it may not get a prize, but someone cares enough to read it, read it again, read it out loud – to consider its message, language, structure and meaning. All of you have been heard and your words appreciated.”

With the further generous support of Julie and Richard Salmon and the Christopher Salmon Foundation, the festival team will be organising a second youth competition in 2027,  which will be open for entries from 1 January 2027 until Friday 28 May 2027. Details will be published on the festival website in December 2026.

We look forward to reading poems from all corners of the Liverpool City Region!