Newington College was  fortunate enough last week to be graced by Kate Middleton, the inaugural City of Sydney Poet (not the royalty). This is the first time this title has been bestowed and is funded by Arts NSW and hosted by UTS. Kate shared with many of us her vast experience and expertise in the field of writing, as well as an assortment of her own works.

Kate made appearances in several English classes currently studying poetry. To the benefit of the boys (who also found the variation to regular class refreshing), she parted with some useful and certainly amusing knowledge on what life is like as a poet, simultaneously helping the budding young poets to develop and critique their own writing.

Her poetry reading, however, was the most memorable part of her visit. The acclaimed writer has recently been named Sydney City’s first poet in 2011, and her volume Fire Season was awarded the Western Australian Premier’s Award for poetry in 2009 and was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year in Poetry. Naturally, there was a deserved buzz around her Thursday afternoon reading to showcase her spectacular works.

Students and teachers willingly gave up their lunchtimes (and missed out on the lunch special at the cafeteria) to listen to a few extracts of her wonderfully original poems. The audience was swayed while the poems were read aloud, lost in the world conjured by the imagery and forgetting their initial disappointment that the special guest was not in fact the Duchess of Cambridge.

Thanks must go to the English Department and Miss Middleton for organising the visit, and we hope that she makes another appearance in the near future to give more students a personal and in-depth perspective on poetry and writing (and also to pester her about her ties to the royal family).

Demos Hammond (10/KL)