Join us for a very special episode of the Commonwealth Poetry Podcast brought to you from Buckingham Palace to celebrate the winners of the Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition 2024 - the world's oldest international schools' writing competition. In this episode Gyles and Aphra Brandreth meet the brilliant young winners and hear from some of the supporters of the Royal Commonwealth Society. Guests this episode include actors Tanya Reynolds and Toby Stephens, comedian Richard Ayoade and award winning journalist Clive Myree. Alongside the exec chair of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Linda Yueh CBE, and the brilliant young winners: Evangeline Khoo – Senior Winner, Erynn Liew – Junior Winner, Cristabelle Yeo – Senior Runner Up, and Victor Kiyaga – Junior Runner Up. Their winning essays can be read online at https://www.royalcwsociety.org/post/qcec2024winners

In this fortnight's episode, Gyles and Aphra Brandreth sit down with Betty S. Chapau, a writer from Manus Province in Papua New Guinea, to discuss her journey of blending storytelling with her cultural roots. With a background in engineering, Betty shares how her Pacific Island heritage and childhood surrounded by traditional stories inspired her to write. She talks about her first published essay, "Harim Mi," featured in the My Walk to Equality anthology in 2017, and her recent poem, “A Love Letter,” published in Pasefika Presence in 2023. Now a full-time mother, Betty runs her own writing website, Pihindras, where she continues to keep her culture alive through her words.

In this fortnight’s episode Gyles and Aphra Brandreth are exploring Fiji with Poet, writer, and musician Daren Kamali aka DKPoet. Now based in Aotearoa New Zealand, Daren was born and raised in Fiji and migrated to Aotearoa at the age of 17. He started his creative career busking street poetry on the city streets of Auckland and since then has produced two music albums and published several books of poetry.

Poems this episode include: Vunimaqo and Mangoes Grew Us both from his collection Vunimaqo and me by Daren Kamali; and The giant unleashed, a spoken word poem also by Daren Kamali.