More than 10,000 young poets from 135 different countries submitted 28,344 poems for this year's Foyle Young Poets award. We are delighted that Georgina, Year 11, was one of 85 commended poets, and special congratulations to Bea, Year 13, who was chosen as one of the top 15 winners for the second year running!

During the ceremony friends, family, poets and educators got to be the first to discover the next generation of poets as they listened to readings from the Foyle Young Poets Award’s top 15 writers, heard reflections from the judges and celebrated the best poems written by young people aged 11–17 from across the world in 2025.

We hope you enjoy Bea's poem "Conversations in Bread-Breaking":

Know that something is changing. Know that your body
is less likely than ever to rip in the wind, fragile as tissue,
and above all that is a good thing. Know that all of your haircuts
and braids down your back taught you the art
of loss like a dance. The oil hisses and winks at you
from the pan – an eye for an eye, the slack gaze
of a mackerel’s head scaled rough between your leatherskin thumbs.
Now, in this sharing of teeth, you may split
yourself from your sorrow. The bread fits on your tongue
like a stormcloud, swelling. You are moth-winged & pigeon-toed:
a hungry thing, sharply inelegant. You have taught yourself how to wait.
And now you crave it, don’t you? The mouth-feel.
Go on. Eat up, the whole lot.