Talented poets in Waltham Forest and beyond will be awarded for their work at a celebratory ceremony after the borough’s first international poetry competition.

Forest Poets, based in Walthamstow, offered people hundreds of pounds in prize money when it launched the Waltham Forest Poetry Competition last summer.

More than 500 people entered in one of three categories - under 18s, over 18s and local poet – with entries coming from as far afield as Australia, Hong Kong, India and North America.

Tim Scott of Walthamstow won first prize for local poet, while Angelena Demaria of Walthamstow and Sarala Estruch of Chingford were placed second and third respectively.

Amira Campbell of Chingford was chosen as winner of the young poet category and Kate Lucas, a student at Walthamstow School for Girls, was placed second.

Kate, 15, of Walthamstow, said: “I found out about the competition from a leaflet at the library and thought it looked interesting, but ended up procrastinating quite a lot and putting it off.

“When it was coming up to the deadline, I was looking out of my bedroom window and there was just a really nice sunset so I wrote about it and decide to enter.

“I was inspired by Emily Dickinson’s creative use of punctuation and capitalisation.

“I was also influenced by the work of Kate Tempest and how she frames the world around her in poetry. If I’m honest, the cash prize was also a big incentive.”

Fellow winner Mr Scott added: “I'm astounded. I've never had any poetry published before and was just at the point of giving up.

“Imagine the joy. I really did think that I'd never get anything published at all.”

The winners and commended poets will see their work published in an anthology online and receive their prizes at a ceremony at Ye Olde Rose & Crown pub in Walthamstow’s Hoe Street on Monday, October 29. All are welcome.

Award-winning poet Meryl Pugh of Leytonstone was given the difficult task of judging the competition which had the theme of ‘a bright future’.

Ms Pugh said she found it “somewhat difficult” to narrow down field, particularly in the youth category which had an “extremely high” standard.

She said: “But narrow it down I did, as all judges must, and I’m so delighted that the winning and commended poems are from such a mix of higher and lower profile writers.

“I’m also delighted that the first Waltham Forest Poetry Competition draws its winner from such an international cohort of writers.

“It proves what I have believed all along - that poetry does not recognise borders and that poets will find their kin all over this planet of ours.”

Ms Pugh was impressed by the way entrants’ documented humanity’s relationship with nature in their poems.

She added: “Maybe it’s appropriate too, for a borough where our human structures and activities are cheek-by-jowl with so many green spaces, to have that reflected in our winners’ poems.”

To read the winning poems visit www.bit.ly/wfpoetrycomp