Queen Anne’s School Launches Creative Writing Competition

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind”

- Virginia Woolf

As Queen Anne’s School has been successfully been putting remote teaching and learning into full swing over the week, the English Department have launched a fortnightly writing competition to keep the creativity for our students and staff flowing! This initiative is also a great way to keep the Queen Anne’s community connected, and to share our stories with one another.

English, and it's many components such as literature, poetry, language and creative writing, are an important part of life at Queen Anne’s School. On World Book Day this year we were joined by bestselling author Jamila Gavin. Last November we had the pleasure of being joined by the UK’s Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, and this year we are excited to welcome prize-winning feminist poet Mary Jean Chan to Queen Anne’s in Michaelmas term.

Armitage has written his own poem ‘Lockdown’ inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic, and other health crises throughout history. To the Poet Laureate, poetry can be consoling in times of crisis because it “asks us just to focus, and think, and be contemplative”.

One particular poem, Safe Space II by Mary Jean Chan, has gained new perspective and relevance due to the developing worldwide situation in tackling Covid-19. The poem begins:

“Wash your hands. Rub soap into foam into lost hands. Focus on the running tap, the way your hands momentarily disappear and you feel safe again. The bathroom is a place you can always rely on, in whatever country […]”

Sound familiar? Chan wrote this poem in 2017 in reflection of the SARS outbreak. She was 12 years old when the epidemic hit her home town in Hong Kong in 2003. Her father, a rheumatologist, played a vital part in treating victims of the outbreak. He told her:

“As a doctor, you can cure one person at a time; as a writer, you can heal a whole society.”

This message resonates with us all at this unprecedented moment in time. The English Department at Queen Anne’s School see this time of reflection as an opportunity to unleash the creativity of our community, and we are looking forward to sharing our writing competition entries with you all.