Poems Aloud! winner
Megan McFadyen-Mungall, winner of Poems Aloud! 2015.
The University Library was proud to be part of the StAnza Poetry festival again this year with our Poems Aloud! recitation competition. 11 University of St Andrews students competed on Friday 6th March, performing their chosen, memorised poem in front of a panel of judges. Judges included: Helen Mort (poet), Colin Will (poet) and Alice Crawford (librarian).
The judges and audience
The winner of the £75 prize was Megan McFadyen-Mungall who recited ‘Too much time looking up’ by Lacey Roop.
Megan performing the poem.
Held in the Main University Library, the event was free and open to all; the competitors performed to a full house!
The Poems Aloud! audience.
University Librarian and Director of Library Services, John MacColl commented:
[blockquote]We feel that Poems Aloud! stands out in the StAnza programme, with the focus on the poem as performance rather than on the author as performer. Learning poems by heart is not nearly as common as it used to be, and yet a learned poem is an important possession that can remain with an individual for life. We hope that by holding Poems Aloud! in the Library we can encourage the learning of poetry by heart, and also its delivery in ways that convey why their poem choices are important to our student performers.[/blockquote]
John MacColl thanking this year’s competitors.
We hope to host Poems Aloud! again next year.
All photographs taken by Lightbox Creative