This week on My poetic Side we look at the collaboration between scientists and poets, and the winner of the Ferdinand Ossendowski Translation Prize.
Poets Matched with Scientists to Deliver Climate Education in Schools Using Poetry
Over 20 poets have been matched with scientists specialising in climate issues in order to educate pupils about climate change using poetry without giving them feelings of guilt or responsibility.
The poet Michael Rosen is one of those involved in the initiative and is advocating for positive examples of climate action to be taught through the national curriculum in the UK. Thiis vision is part of the initiative “Hot Poets Ignite”, the aim of which is to focus on
“the urgency for us to be taking action and looking at wonderful initiatives that are taking place”.
Each of the poets has written a poem which has been carefully designed to ensure that the children they are aimed at do not feel responsible for something that they have not created. They contain an element of hope and responsibility. Rosen is now calling for there to be appropriate climate change education available to all pupils through the curriculum. He feels that both science and geography syllabus’s do a good job of explaining the issue but that is should be introduced through other subjects as well.
This initiative is targeted at those in Key Stage 2 and early Key Stage 3. Interested schools are able to apply for a visit from the Hot Poets who will also include Joseph Coelho, the former Children’s Laureate, Kate Fox, and Bohdan Piasecki. Each poet has been responsible for the crafting of an original poem that explores one of a range of diverse topics including wind energy and whale poo. All of the poems have been collated into a book called Wonder, Thunder, Blunder.
All of the Hot Poets will be performing at the Southbank Imagine Festival in February and Rosen will also be delivering a special performance at the National Poetry Day in 2026.
Iya Kiva Takes Ossendowski Prize
The Ukrainian translator and poet Iya Kiva has been named as a laureate of the Ferdinand Ossendowski Prize for her translations of Polish poems into Ukrainian. The prize highlights in particular her translations of some of the works of the Polish poets Krystyna Milobędzka and Ewa Lipska.
Kiva is delighted to have received the prize but admitted on receiving it that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia she has been lacking in the energy needed to undertake new translations. She sees this award as a sign that now is the right time to return to her translation work because poetry has always been the way in which she has found it easy to express freedom and love, and this is particularly important in times of war.
Kiva is also a member of Ukrainian PEN; she has written three poetry collections of her own and also a book of interviews with writers from Belarus. She was born in Donetsk but as a result of the invasion has since moved, first to Kyiv and then to Lviv. She was also a finalist in a War Poetry Contest which was held in memory of Gleb Babich.
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