Wild Court

Wild Court is an international online poetry journal based in the Department of English drawing on an international community of professional poets, writers and critics, and including a section of work from King’s creative writing students.

The journal publishes poems, reviews of poetry collections, and poetry-related essays, featuring the voices of old and new – from poets and reviewers with long publishing records right through to people who may never have been published before.

Part of this commitment to platforming new voices includes publishing the shortlisted winners of the annual Cosmo Davenport-Hines poetry competition, open to all students at King's.

The journal also hosts the Wild Court Reading Series, a selection of free public events at King’s that highlight poetry’s power to connect with other thought-worlds, disciplines, and areas of life. These sessions feature acclaimed poets reading and in conversation – previous speakers include former New Zealand Poet Laureate Selina Marsh, TS Eliot Prize winners Anthony Joseph and Sarah Howe, and poet and literary critic Kimbery Johnson.

Poems published in Wild Court have gone on to be shortlisted for or win the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, including:

Fiona Benson was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2018 with the poem 'Ruins'.
Liz Berry won the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2019 with the poem 'Highbury Park'.

Why 'Wild Court'?

Wild Court is named for an alley opposite the Virginia Woolf Building on the Strand campus, which houses the Department of English.

In the nineteenth century, Wild Court alley was an Irish slum, a ‘rookery’ where no policeman dared venture. Close by is the Fleet Street window where W.B. Yeats was inspired to write ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ after seeing a fountain in a shop window.

Find out more on the Wild Court website

handwriting in a notebook feature image (shutterstock)

Student poetry competition

The Cosmo Davenport-Hines Poetry Prize takes place annually, with all King's students invited to submit a poem based that year's chosen theme. Winners receive a cash prize and their work is published in Wild Court.

The contest honours Cosmo, a student who died in 2008 while part of the Department of English. The prize seeks to remember his creativity and love of words.