Poetry Contest 2016 Winners

A heartfelt THANK YOU to all of the children and young adults who sent in poems for this year’s poetry contest. We had over 250 entries in three age categories, so choosing winners has been an especial challenge this year – many poems were very reluctantly set aside. ALL of the poems were read and appreciated for their creativity, their structure, their quality, and just the work the writers did to put their ideas down in words – very well done! Look for all of the poems on this website in the near future! (We have many more to scan than we expected, so please bear with us as we publish them in “shifts.”)

Our two judges this year were a children’s book author and a learning psychologist/author/Henry Huggins enthusiast. They were assisted by an American primary school teacher and a librarian. Fourth place winners will receive a gift certificate to paint pottery at Füürwäärch in Dübendorf (first- through third-place winners receive book gift cards). There are a few “special mention” poems, especially in the 9-11 category, which had the most entries. These do not win a prize but we wanted to acknowledge them, and they will receive a certificate of participation. Prizes should be in the mail sometime next week.

Ages 6-8

First place: “The Animals of the Forest”
Johanne Deluce, age 8, Haut-Lac International Bilingual School
(The first stanza of Johanne’s poem was a prompt from the teacher, after Roger McGough’s “The Sound Collector.”)

Second place: “The Forest”
Nathaniel Walmsley, age 8, Swiss International School Basel

Third place: “The Trees and the Breeze”
Taylar Lieber, age 6, Swiss International School Winterthur

Fourth place: “In the Woods”
Lucy Geisen, age 8, Swiss International School Schönenwerd

Special Mentions:

“Bees with Fleas”
Maria Forsberg, age 7, Swiss International School Basel

“The Silent Forest”
Inès Aloisi, age 8, Haut-Lac International Bilinugal School
(also from “The Sound Collector” prompt, which is her poem’s first stanza)

“The Forest Day”
Ben Dawson-Stanley, age 6, Itingen Kindergarten

“In the Forest”
Amy Yeow Postelthwaite, age 7, Swiss International School, Basel

“The Forest”
Alessandro Orlandi, age 7, Swiss International School, Basel

Ages 9-11

First place: “The Forest”
Alina Leupi, age 9, Swiss International School Schönenwerd

Second place: “It’s Autumn”
Sebastiaan Baks, age 11, Swiss International School Basel

Third place: “The Sound Collector”
Anna Thorpe, age 9, Haut-Lac International Bilingual School
(The first stanza of Anna’s poem was a prompt from the teacher, after Roger McGough’s “The Sound Collector.”)

Fourth place: “The Tree”
Gabriel Unglert, age 9, Swiss International School Basel

Special Mentions:

“In the Forest Deep” (page 2)
Louna Seraphine Kautz, Swiss International School Basel
(second page is missing from post and will be added soon!)

“Abandoned Forest”
Minnie Kang, Swiss International School Basel

“The Forest”
Prachi Payasi, age 9, International School of Bern

“Seasons”
Nora Groh, age 9, Swiss International School Basel

“The Soundless Forest”
Lily Yeoland, age 9, Haut-Lac International Bilingual School
(The first stanza is a prompt she was given based on the poem “The Sound Collector.”)

“A Fright”
Melissa Lelli, Swiss International School Basel

“The Forest of the Night” (page 2)
Maya Lennox, age 11, Inter-Community School Zürich

“The Forest”
Gianluca Bigler, age 10, Swiss International School Schönenwerd

“The Little Grey Bunny”
Urszula Sarnecka, Swiss International School Basel

Ages 12-14

First place: “The forest is”
Adrian Fuchs, age 12, Swiss International School Schoenenwerd

Second place: “Light or dark?”
Nils Brendel, age 13, Realschule Langenthal

Third place: “The Wild Forest”
Nina Schlapbach, age 14, Realschule Langenthal

Fourth place: “Deep Below the Trees”
Emma Langkjaer, age 14, Swiss International School Zürich
Note: We considered this poem the clear winner, but it was not written out by hand. Attempts to reach Emma by email to see if she would write it out were unsuccessful. We couldn’t let this lovely poem go without a prize, though, and so have placed it fourth.

Special mention: “Untitled”
Florence Meyer, age 13, Swiss International School Schönenwerd