As part of our continuing ‘Year of Literature’ celebrations, we were delighted to welcome award-winning poet, Theresa Lola, to Bromley High School on Friday 12th June. She talked to Year 10 students about her personal journey as a creative writer and performed some of her best known poems as well as working with Year 12 English students in a creative writing workshop.
Theresa was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and moved to London in 2007. In 2015, she graduated with a first class degree from the University of Hertfordshire and later obtained a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Oxford. In 2018, she was joint winner of the Brunel International African Poetry Prize and a year later in 2019, she was announced as the 2021 Young People’s Laureate for London.
Theresa’s second collection of poems, Ceremony for the Nameless, was the winner of the 2025 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and explores the relationship between names, naming and identity.
Theresa’s workshops explored the creative process in writing poetry and inspired the girls to produce some excellent writing.
Below is a sample of some beautiful Year 10 writing and Mrs D. Hart, too, was inspired to put pen to paper.
The person who is the breath of life
All are enveloped by her radiance.
Her voice settles a room,
Even if they don’t know what her name is.
Anonymous – Y10
What if warmth could envelope loudly beyond me?
Thick as wool to make man full of comfort.
Clutched and knitted and pressed within palms that once were bare of hope,
Now love knots, secures and holds like rope
Almost brushing like squeezed orange from peel,
Sweet yet sharp, like how we feel,
Like clasped sticky hands that strain
Each other; love
Forms the skin of sister, brother.
Mrs D. Hart
