A CREATIVE teenager from Rugby has triumphed ahead of over 6,000 young writers to be named one of the top 15 future stars of the poetry world.
Yousef Alawi, 17, is one of the top 15 winners of the Poetry Society’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year Awards 2024.
His poem, How Can I Write When There Is a Boy – a reflection on the effects of war on young people – was chosen ahead of 17,000 poems submitted from around the world.
Yousef reads his poem at the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Awards ceremony at The British Library. Picture by Madden Mannock Photography
The Rugby High School student is a Yemeni writer and poet. He was raised between Malaysia and Yemen before he moved to Rugby.
He is interested in all things film, photography, and writing, and draws inspiration from poets like Ocean Vuong, Sylvia Plath, and Richard Siken.
He said: “Having my poem chosen as a top 15 poem for the Foyle Young Poets award is an incredible honour that still feels a bit surreal.
“This award has given me the motivation to keep improving my writing as well as to continue writing about the things that feel important to me.”
Yousef read out his poem in front of an audience of poets educators at a special celebration at The British Library in London.
As one of the top 15 poets, he will receive further mentoring opportunities including a week-long residential writing course under the guidance of professional poets, a year’s youth membership of The Poetry Society, a goody bag full of books, and opportunities for publication, performance and development.
His poem will also appear in a winners’ anthology which will be distributed free to thousands of schools, libraries, reading groups and poetry lovers across the UK and the world.
Judge Vanessa Kisuule, a poet, performer and slam champion, said she was ‘awestruck at how precocious and assured these poets are’.
She added: “This year’s entries took me to many wondrous and unexpected places.
“Some poems made me cackle and others made my stomach twist in recognition with the pain and struggle they depicted.
“Amongst them are the future stars of the poetry world and I’m honoured to have had this glimpse into the crystal ball.”
Fellow judge, poet, writer and critic Jack Underwood added: “To see so many poems written by young people, while initially daunting, reassured me that poetry is healthier than ever, and continues to lure fresh minds into its weird, millennia-old conversation.
“I was impressed by how imaginatively and wholeheartedly these poets ventured into the world, asked questions, and replied to it: with tenderness, social conscience, and novelty of thought and phrase.”
Poetry Society Director Judith Palmer added: “The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is a launch pad for the best of the world’s young poets, and the Award’s sheer scale and global reach demonstrates what a huge achievement it is to be selected as one of our winners.”
Run by The Poetry Society since 1998 and supported by the Foyle Foundation, the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is one of the leading writing competitions for young people aged 11 to 17 years.
Past winners include many of the biggest stars in contemporary poetry, including Sarah Howe, Caroline Bird, Jay Bernard, Theo Kwek and Helen Mort.
How Can I Write When There Is a Boy
by Yousef Alawi
The politician stands upright against the wooden panel.
Tie tied tighter.
A politician is a white flag,
The very fabric ripped off our martyrs.
A white flag raised for distant enough eyes,
Red specks up close.
A boy runs so fast there is blood in his teeth.
teeth in his blood.
A boy is ducking behind the car seat in hopes the bullets will only fly overhead.
A car is between alleyways.
A boy is praying, praying, praying,
What do I have to speak for if a boy still has to run?
What is there to write when there is an assortment of bullets on the table?
Little missiles stacked into summer-coloured plastic trays?
This pile of limbs, scorched and soot-infested? A car disfigured with wounds, all entry and none exit?
Your eyes already begin to scan this debris for a body.
For red.
A boy turns himself into a weapon
That makes a sound so slicing it cuts deeper into skin
Than the click of a typewriter.
I thought I was a boy turned weapon but I was just wordplay.
All tongue.
A boy is a boy,
A boy is a gun.
The pressure pressures an impression against his skin
But all you feel is a ripple.
A boy is always a gun
always,
Don’t you forget
A boy is a gun only because he is made to be one.
A boy is a boy,
A boy is a body.
Red against the charred white shirt he wore to surrender.
A boy becomes a white flag.
