Dear Oma,

You have been an integral part of our Teens Writing Club for many years now and we, both workshop leaders and your fellow students, are always blown away by your writing, whether it be prose or poetry. Your voice is so strong and it has been an absolute pleasure to watch it develop and grow over the years. You make us laugh in each session from the pure joy of your writing.

We can’t be prouder of your achievement at coming in the top 15 for the Foyles Poetry Award. This is such a big deal! To quote The Poetry Society’s Website, ‘More than 10,000 poets aged 11-17 submitted over 28,300 poems into the 2025 competition. Young people from 135 countries took part from as far afield as Uzbekistan, Fiji, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, as well as the four corners of the UK.’

I remember the beginnings of the poem as you wrote it in the workshop and am so glad that it was shared and loved by others!

So a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU!!!

Looking forward to writing again soon with you.

Best wishes, Helena and Lou

To read Oma’s (Nhuomachim Umo-Chinda)poem

A Semiotic Deconstruction of Blue in Static Form by Nhuomachim Umo-Chinda

and the poetry of the other top 15 winners CLICK HERE