An Anthology of Students’ Works 2020. Edited by Faysal Mikdadi
Review by Barry Tempest, author of Still Setting Out, pub. Inklemaker (2020)
“The Workshop was very helpful to inspire me to write my own poem. I have also read some poems by Thomas Hardy…We also evaluated some poems by other poets…Writing my own poem at the end was great fun and throughout the Workshop we learned about different poets and their ways of speaking to us…”
“We greatly enjoyed these activities and finished off by writing the following poems which you will read in this special book.”
Thus Verity Mallinson and JJ Sawtell, both of St Edmund’s C of E Middle School, Dorchester, write in the Preface to this lovely anthology of work by many students from a variety of different schools, many local, but ranging as far as Birmingham, and all put together under the steady editorial hand of Faysal Mikdadi, himself an established poet and author as well as experienced educator. The students themselves represent different age groups, but what they have in common is a sense of excitement in their creative and imaginative work and – which will be no surprise to anyone who has worked with children – a glowing sense of creative integrity.
These young writers are at different stages in their own personal, linguistic, and creative development, but already future promise shines through. They show generosity of imagination and empathy, as well as willingness to experiment with technical form. Above all, they demonstrate that a much-criticised formal school curriculum which makes opportunities such as provided by these workshops all the more vital, cannot choke off active imaginations.
Some of the poems explore important personal experiences; some are more clearly works of pure imagination, while others respond to mundane events, finding beauty and interest in the everyday or in nature. Always there is the freshness of a new journey of discovery.
For those involved in teaching children creatively, whether formally or informally, the book contains an invaluable appendix of ideas and advice that have informed this series of workshops and its predecessor in 2019.
Where so many schools and individual poets are represented, it would be invidious to select a handful by way of illustration. Rather, I recommend buying the anthology, to savour them for yourself.
Inspired by Thomas Hardy, An Anthology of Students’ Works, ed Faysal Mikdadi under the aegis of the Thomas Hardy Society.
Published by Roving Press Ltd, (2020).
ISBN 978-1-906651-367
£10.00
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