THE UNIVERSITY of Winchester has celebrated 12 years of student poetry with the launch of a new book.

The book, titled ‘The lost art of staring into fires’, includes a collection of the best poetry from 37 creative writing students both past and present.

It was officially released on Friday (May 27) during an event at P&G Wells in College Street.

Author and senior lecturer, Glenn Fosbraey, was joined by scores of student contributors for the big reveal - some of whom read passages from the 176 page book.

Mr Fosbraey said the collection boasts vast array of styles, forms, and subject matter, ranging from the "shocking to the hilarious, the thought-provoking to the abstract".

Tom Moody, 33, has just finished his final year as an undergraduate and is now setting his sights on a masters degree, with the eventual goal of becoming a children's writer. He had three poems published in the book which covered contemporary topics such as small talk and his experience of a music festival - taking inspiration from one of his idols, Joe Dunthorne.

"I got the email from Glenn and I thought I might as well send something in as they're calling for submissions - I didn't really think it would ever be included," he said.

"The launch was great, it was nice to actually go to an event in person, especially what with Covid. There were lots of readings, and what really struck me was the range and diversity of everyone's work. To see my poetry in print and in a physical book was fantastic."

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Olivia Sinthathurai, 21, has also just put the finishing touches to her degree. She said: "I mostly submitted romantic poems and I was so proud to see one of them made it into the book - it's my first piece of published work. It was really nice to see the book at the launch and I brought a copy for my parents, I think they'll be very proud to see my accomplishments from the course."

For more information, visit: valleypressuk.com/book/174/the_lost_art_of_staring_into_fires

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