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Ashdown Forest Poetry competition winners announced and other news from our poets

Last week we marked National Poetry Day with three new poems commissioned for the Royal Literary Fund’s 235th anniversary, kicking off a month long celebration of poetry across the UK.

At Longbenton Metro station in North Tyneside five original new poems, written by local professional poets Degna Stone, Christy Ducker, Jo Clement, Anna Woodford – who first spearheaded the idea of Poetry on the Platforms in 2021 – and Harry Man (pictured above, l-r) have just gone on display across the station, which serves over one million customers annually.

This year’s poems are all inspired by the Metro itself, from Jo Clements’ ‘My Metty Blessing’ to Anna Woodford’s ‘Poem Byelaws’, which is written in the style of a bullet-pointed list of bylaws. The Poetry on the Platforms campaign is supported by Metro-operator Nexus and the RLF, and the poems will be on display at Longbenton into the New Year, brightening up commuter’s journeys and shoppers’ visits during the coming winter months.

Also last week, Ashdown Forest’s poetry competition for teens and adults, now in its second year, revealed its two winners:

• The teenagers category (for poets aged 13-18) was won by Khudeeja Begum for the poem, Threaded Through the Quiet
• The adults category was won by Vanessa Lampert for the poem, For the Other

Ashdown Poetry Prize 2025 adults category winner Vanessa Lampert

Both poets wrote beautiful poems in keeping with the competition’s theme of ‘Connections’, which invited writers to explore themes ranging from the bond between people and nature – an integral part of Ashdown Forest, which is one of the largest open access areas in South East England and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that served as author AA Milne‘s inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood – to connections between people, memory and place.

RLF trustee Fiona Sampson, who was one of the judges for this year’s competition, said of the judging experience: “It was a pleasure to be involved with the poetry competition as a representative of the Royal Literary Fund, and to help decide the two deserving winners.”

RLF Chief Executive Edward Kemp added: “The judges have done a fantastic job in selecting such deserving winners, and we pass on our congratulations to both Khudeeja Begum and Vanessa Lampert.”

You can read both winning poems here.

Finally, last week also saw the shortlist announcement for the prestigious TS Eliot Prize. We are delighted to be able to congratulate two RLF writers, who are among the ten poets to feature on the shortlist:

• Fellow Gillian Allnutt whose shortlisted collection Lode, published by Bloodaxe Books, traces a journey through time since the Second World War.
• WritersMosaic‘s Nick Makoha whose shortlisted collection The New Carthaginians, published by Penguin Poetry, is concerned throughout with flight and falling, the sample and the loop.

The winner of the 2025 TS Eliot Prize will be announced on Monday 19 January 2026. Congratulations to all the shortlisted poets.

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