by Louise Johns-Shepherd
Steven Camden who is an acclaimed script-writer and spoken word artist was announced as the winner of the annual CLiPPA poetry award at the Lyttleton Stage at the National Theatre, in front of a 900-strong audience of school children who have participated in the CLiPPA shadowing scheme.
His debut collection, Everything All At Once, (Macmillan Children’s Books), beat off competition from Carnegie Medal shortlistee Kwame Alexander, for Rebound (Andersen Press), previous CLiPPA winner Rachel Rooney for A Kid in My Class (Otter-Barry Books) and T.S. Eliot Prize winner Philip Gross for Dark Sky Park (Otter-Barry Books) .
The final shortlisted collection, Thinker: My Puppy Poet and Me by beloved US poet Eloise Greenfield (Tiny Owl Publishing) was highly commended by the judges which was chaired by A.F Harrold.
As he has done for previous CLiPPA Award Ceremonies, Chris Riddell, (former Children’s Laureate, author, illustrator and political cartoonist) successfully entertained everyone by live-drawing the whole event from the stage.
Established in 2003, CLiPPA encourages and celebrates outstanding poetry published for children and stands alone as the only annual award in the UK for published poetry for children. The award is the flagship event in CLPE’s year round championing of poetry.
Thousands of children from nearly 200 schools from across the UK took part in the Shadowing Scheme. The Shadowing Schools submitted films of children performing their favourite poems from the shortlist and the winning performers were invited to the National Theatre to meet the shortlisted poets and take part in specially planned theatre workshops. The winning children then performed on the stage alongside the shortlisted poets before the winner announcement.
The 5 winning schools included:
Congratulations to all of the school performers.
Here’s what some of the winning teachers who took part had to say:
“Usually I have 30 very tired children on the way home from a trip, today the coach was buzzing. Thank you all so much for making the day so special and for taking such good care of us… So very proud and feel blessed to have had such an amazing opportunity.”
Mary Gahan, Year 2 Teacher, St Mary’s Catholic Primary School.
“Thank you for coordinating everything so smoothly. Please pass on my sincere thanks to everyone at CLPE for such a wonderful event. Cayla had an absolutely perfect day.”
Jon Biddle, Year 6 Teacher, Moorlands Primary School
Register your interest in taking part with next year’s shadowing scheme
The ceremony culminated in the announcement of a national poetry reading and writing challenge for children. #MyNPDPoem marks the 25th Anniversary of National Poetry Day which this year will be celebrated on Thursday 3rd October.