Literary events launches Anthology 2024
Today more than ever, it feels essential to create opportunities for our pupils to write as a way of expressing the human experience. How else can we truly make sense of the world if not through words: spoken and written? We are all acutely aware of the potential threat of generative AI to creative expression and the need to counter that. We are all aware of the decline in print media and the changing habits in the way we consume information. It feels apt therefore, to luxuriate in some glorious examples of writing that celebrate the power of the written word.
Mrs Holt, Editor
This year’s Anthology, featuring a collection of pupils’ poems, short stories and non-fiction, together with artwork and photography was launched to great acclaim at a literary event at school last week, to celebrate the creative expression of our talented pupils.
In publishing the Anthology, Mrs Holt, Editor of the publication and English teacher at KES, notes that: “Today more than ever, it feels essential to create opportunities for our pupils to write as a way of expressing the human experience. How else can we truly make sense of the world if not through words: spoken and written? We are all acutely aware of the potential threat of generative AI to creative expression and the need to counter that. We are all aware of the decline in print media and the changing habits in the way we consume information. It feels apt therefore, to luxuriate in some glorious examples of writing that celebrate the power of the written word.”
The selection of poetry, short stories and non-fiction work featured in this year’s Anthology were drawn from the School’s English competitions last year and they serve to remind us that language can be fun and playful, profound, moving, timely, prescient, thought-provoking and vital.
This year’s poetry competition invited pupils to explore the idea of ‘Truth and Lies’, whilst in a break from tradition, the journalism competition became the Non-Fiction Competition, allowing for a broader range of writing that encompassed nature and the great outdoors. Finally, the Short Story Competition explored the enduring appeal of ‘Time’ as inspiration for some fantastical temporal journeys in writing.
Extending the creative journey that the Anthology affords, artworks and photography from the Art department accompany each piece of creative writing. Mr Hume-Smith, Art editor of this year’s publication, and Head of Art and Photography at KES, enjoyed the creative journey of matching a visual to the written word. “The Anthology is a wonderful celebration of imagination and creativity, and we had a broad and exciting range of artwork to choose from this year and as always it has been hugely enjoyable to select meaningful images for the publication.”
