Young Poets Network: empowering young people to creatively process the climate emergency
Case study by Cia Mangat, The Poetry Society
Background photo by Laura Ludtke
The Project
The Poetry Society has a longstanding commitment to environmental programming in our work with young people. Through climate- and ecopoetry-focused writing challenges and workshops on our online platform Young Poets Network, we give young people space to address climate anxiety through poetry and use their voices to advocate for change.
In 2021, for example, we partnered with charity People Need Nature on a writing challenge which asked young people to write poems imagining natural solutions to problems caused by the climate crisis. One of the winning poems, ‘A Positively Violent Poem in Five Parts’ by India-based poet Jayant Kashyap, addresses environmental injustice head-on:
‘everyone was a hypocrite and angry
[…]
a head full of plastics is of no use to
anyone.’
A number of the winning poems from the challenge were then shared at COP26, including live performances to delegates in person and video recordings of the international winners.
Read More here: A Positively Violent Poem in Five Parts – The Poetry Society: Poems
Recent challenge themes have included ecotones, the history and future of the landscapes we inhabit, bogs, poetry and the ocean, and imagining spaces where human and non-human earthlings can coexist. Hundreds of young poets have used the prompt materials on each challenge page to write new poems about the environment; the fact that the prompts remain online after each challenge closes means that they can continue to access a wealth of inspiration.
Poetry Society bog poetry workshop, Plymouth, 2024, with Dartmoor National Park, South West Peatland Partnership
Photo Credit: Laura Ludtke
Young people’s perspectives are a crucial part of our environmental work: in 2025, we invited young poets Jennie Howitt and Freya Gillard to set a bog-themed poetry challenge on Young Poets Network as part of our involvement with Bog Talk. Jennie also facilitated a free online workshop to help inspire entries to the challenge, using audio and video clips to evoke the setting of a bog for participants who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access one in person.
Image: Foyle Young Poet Jennie Howitt facilitating a bog-themed writing workshop for Young Poets Network
We’re particulary keen to empower voices from a diverse range of backgrounds, and to amplify their perspectives beyond the poetry community. In 2025-26, our nature-themed challenges were entered by young people in 45 countries, including several of which are at the forefront of the climate emergency, such as Bangladesh, Brazil, Guyana, Nigeria, Pakistan, and New Zealand.
As well as at COP26, our young poets have performed their poems about the climate emergency on national radio and in New York, London, and Johannesburg to an audience of global thought leaders (from UNICEF, UNESCO and the Nobel Peace Centre) who declared them ‘inspirational’.
Photo: Young poets Renée, Maggie and Aliyah at COP26
As Young Poets Networker Daniel Clark puts it,
‘poetry can’t reverse climate breakdown, [but] as nature vanishes all around us, young poets are planting seeds for the type of world they want to grow up in.’
Through our school-based work, we have also produced a wealth of ecopoetry resources for teachers and sent several poets into classrooms to inspire pupils of all ages to write about their relationship with the environment. Find out more about our environmental work:
Poetry and the Environment – The Poetry Society
Case Study Team
Cia Mangat is Education Coordinator at The Poetry Society. She runs Young Poets Network for writers aged 5-25, the Young Critics Scheme, and the Poets in Schools service.
She is a writer, facilitator, producer, and zine-maker based in London. Find more about Cia here.
Photo Credit: Thom Bartley for Verve Poetry Festival
Young Poets Network is The Poetry Society’s online platform for young poets up to the age of 25. Here you’ll find features about poets and poetry, challenges and competitions to inspire your own writing, new writing from young poets, and advice and guidance from the rising and established stars of the poetry scene. We also bring you the latest news and ideas from the writing world, and a list of competitions, magazines and writing groups which particularly welcome young writers.