AN Oxford teenager has been named a national poetry prize winner after joining a school group encouraging her to write verse.

Aisha Mango Borja, 15, from Rose Hill, has been listed by The Poetry Society as one of the top 15 winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year.

She was recognised for her poem The Lost Indigenous Language of Colombia – the second year in a row she has made the top 15.

Her work paints a picture of the hustle and bustle of life in South America.

Aisha, a pupil at Oxford Spires Academy in Glanville Road, East Oxford, said: "I feel really honoured to be a winner of the award, especially as I was a winner last year as well.

"I realised from last year how difficult and wonderful the poems were, and so it is just amazing to win a second time."

Aisha is half Colombian, a quarter Dutch and a quarter English.

She added: "I started writing poetry when I was 13 because of a group I started going to run by our school’s writer-in-residence, Kate Clanchy.

"I enjoyed it so much and started writing more – I still go to the group and have also started writing at home.

"I have been lucky to win the Foyle before and have been on three courses which have made me a better writer.

"In the future I hope to carry on getting these amazing opportunities and become an author."

The top 15 poems will be published in a printed winners’ anthology, also available online, from March 2018 while the 85 commended poems will appear in an online anthology.

The winners were announced at a prize-giving ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre, London as part of the London Literature Festival.

Organised by The Poetry Society and supported by The Foyle Foundation, the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award has been held every year since 1998.

It is one of the largest literary competitions in the world and is a defining award for young poets around the world.

This year’s competition attracted more than11,000 poems from more than 6,000 poets from across the UK and around the globe.

Writers from 89 different countries entered the competition, including Myanmar, Syria and Zimbabwe.

From the thousands of poems entered, this year’s judges Kayo Chingonyi and Sinead Morrissey selected 100 winners, made up of the 15 top poets and 85 commended poets.

Kayo Chingonyi said: "I was particularly struck by the number of poems that reflected on the complexities of living at this particular moment in time, rather than taking their cue from poems and contexts of the past.

“Lines from some of the poems pop into my head every now and again.”

"These young poets have something to say and know exactly how they wanted to say it.

The top 15 poets have been invited to attend a residential writing course where they will spend a week with experienced tutors focusing on improving their poetry.

All 100 winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award have received a year’s youth membership of The Poetry Society.