BSU Poetry Slam Champions
News
Poetry Prowess for BSU
Friday, 21 March, 2025On 7 March, Bath Spa University students united to compete in the English National Poetry Slam Championship for the title of England Slam Champion. The competition took place online and required two poems per person for entry. Entering from BSU were, BA Creative Media student Jay Macdonald, BA Creative Writing and Drama student Megan Mifsud and MA Creative Writing graduate Jo Eades.
Explaining the origins of the competition, Megan and Jay’s coach Kathryn O’Driscoll shared all about how it runs:
“The championship itself is run by John Paul O’Neill under the brand Farrago Poetry and is the longest running slam in Europe and has been running since 1994. In the past few years, the competition has happened via video on YouTube, but the winner of the title gets to represent England at international competitions such as Grand Poetry Slam in Paris, the World Poetry Slam Championships in Brazil, and the European Slam Championship. Each poet submits two performances of original poetry under 3 minutes to be judged, and the highest combined score wins.
To be eligible to compete in the England slam championship you need to have won a poetry slam in the preceding 12 months, which is how Jay, Megan and Jo qualified. I won this title in 2021 and have been a judge of the competition since.”
This year’s results ended in landslide success for BSU with Jay in 2nd overall, Megan in 3rd overall and Jo in 4th meaning three out of the four top spots were all clenched by Bath Spa poets. Hearing from 2nd place winner Jay it’s clear to see how impactful the competition was:
"Being a sober neurodivergent student, I've struggled to find my place in the typical university - poetry has been a way for me to get out, make new friends, and feel at home in Bath. Placing second in the UK has given me confidence in my art like nothing else, and my progress in my poetry writing and performance has been all due to the Bath and Bristol poetry community!"
Next month, Jay and Megan will also compete as part of inter-University competition Uni Slam, where they and four others will compete under the BSU team banner. The team has made the semi-finals or finals every year since 2017 and are currently in the process of fundraising to help cover their competition costs. Both Jay, and Megan in particular, have attributed some of their success to the support the Uni Slam process gives them. Megan said:
“Performance for me is all about sharing my work and connecting to others, so to have come this far is a real highlight for me. Especially being able to write and share pieces that are very personal, this is a great leap forward towards my career and passions.”
Dr Lucy English, Professor of Creative Enterprise and The Spoken Word also reflected post event:
“We have so many talented poets at Bath Spa University and a strong engagement with poetry in performance and spoken word. The Uni Slam venture is largely student led, and I'm delighted to hear about Jay, Megan and Jo's amazing successes in the English National Poetry Slam. I wish them all the best for the Uni Slam championship in April!”
If you feel inspired to start your own journey as a poet, why not attend the next Poetry Spa event on 2 April - @thepoetryspa on Instagram. Or have a look at some of the amazing writing courses BSU has to offer. If you’d like to help support the BSU poetry slam team, you can make a donation on their fundraising site.