Transition Year English Evening
On Tuesday last we held the 24th annual TY English Evening in the Big Schoolroom. The guest speaker this time was Professor Colin Graham, Head of the English Department at Maynooth University.
Eight pieces from the recent Work Portfolio were read out by their writers: Ross Magill (his first Primary school); David White (the nature of ‘failure’); Lucy Maher (‘A Picky Eater’); Toby Green (Blanche Dubois’s diary); Anna Bofferding (Donald Trump and World War III); Andre Stokes (a poem called ‘Young Musician’); Casper v d Schuelenberg (‘The Oldest Person I Know’ – the Holocaust survivor Marko Feingold); William Zitzmann (‘Thought Bubbles’, assisted by Grace Goulding).
Professor Graham commented with great attentiveness and sympathy on these pieces, saying how much he was impressed by the writing on display. Each piece had made him think of another writer. He stressed the vital importance of a multiplicity of voices in today’s world, and how important it was that young people lead this way (in many ways his own generation has failed them). He quoted from Sam Riviere’s controversial book of poems Kim Kardashian’s Wedding.
Finally, the Premier Awards were announced after this year’s course: Ross Magill, Helen Crampton, Harry Oke-Osanyintolu, Catherine Butt, Caspar von der Schülenburg, Julius Reblin, JiWoo Park, William Zitzmann, Toby Green, Isabelle Townshend, Sophia von Wedel, Nicole Birlain Zeigler.
