Two Antigua and Barbuda students – Shakeir Thomas of Antigua Grammar School and Denae T. L. Bontiff of St Anthony’s Secondary – have won the top prizes in a regional poetry competition, according to an announcement from the Ministry of Education.
Thomas won the Secondary School category of Macmillan Education’s Language Tree: New Branches Poetry Competition while Bontiff was awarded the runner up position in the same category.
The competition, which opened on 12th June and ended 12th September 2025, saw entries from across the Caribbean. The poems submitted by the two creative students, as well as one by Mrs. Nari Haywood-Belle of the Language Arts Unit, who submitted an entry in the Teachers category are featured in a Macmillan Education special edition poetry book.
The publication was created from winning and commendable entries in the regional poetry competition sponsored by Macmillan Education. Entries to the competition were based on the following themes: the weather, nature, the sea, food, an animal, and a festival.
Thomas’ brilliant poem was based on Nature while Bontiff and Belle demonstrated their creativity on the theme of Food. The Ministry of Education congratulates the two students and Mrs. Belle on their outstanding achievement.
