Poets and novelists published in the Prix Laurence anthologies each set out to unveil and understand the world in their own way. Some let the reader explore for themselves; others demand answers; a few hand them over.
Each offers a thrilling ride through the consequences of our actions.
Unveiling the world: Speaking of tomorrow, by the authors of tomorrow
We've all heard about karma, but do consequences really come back to bite us? Brain or Heart by Elissaveta Staneva tells a compelling story of the world to come. Dystopian, or realistic?
The poem throws us straight into this broken-down world, the future. Written for the Prix Laurence in 2020, it has only gained relevance six years on: as AI keeps advancing, it could carry us toward an 'ideal' world, or into the dystopia that greed and human nature have built. That is the world Elissaveta lays before us.
Elissaveta could be a new Cassandra: a prophet cursed to be ignored, her warnings left unheard.
Elissaveta's style is quick and harsh, a 'swim or drown' for the reader. Yet it also has a fluid motion that feels almost calming, much like the work of local slam poet Nicolas Calmes. His What I Did – at least in the toned-down version printed in the 2017 Prix Laurence anthology – reads as a first-person apology from a bully to his victim, and shows how society excuses almost anything by turning a blind eye. The apology soon curdles into something half-hearted, taking a stab at justice.
Going in, I expected something fast and light. Something comedic. It is a spectacular read; you can tell it is meant to be spoken aloud, and with passion. But I would not call it light. Comedic, perhaps, in a dark sense: Nicolas strips away the sugar-coating we wrap the world, revealing a cruel, brutally honest reality.
Both poets were selected for the anthologies from a field of a hundred entrants in their age group. Just as Lena Rubio Doering, who wrote 'Truth or Death' in 2020. Yet unlike Nicolas, Lena cannot unveil the truth, she is still searching for it, and she speaks of the unfairness that comes with not knowing.
She makes the reader feel her anxiety, to a suffocating degree, driven by the poem's sheer rapidity. At the very end, Lena hooks us with a volta, reaching almost for empathy. What lingers is a strange emptiness, the hollow feeling you get stepping off a rollercoaster.
And while rollercoasters aren't for everyone, her work is easy to read, and it asks the one question we all keep asking: what is the truth?
If self-reflection and thrill rides aren't your cup of tea (or cup of plant) then Brea Fox's The Plant Store, published in 2025, might be for you. It will leave you speechless, and a little disoriented. Call it a psychedelic thriller: you're addressed directly throughout and pulled straight into the story, free to wander the seemingly ordinary plant store more personally (and maybe forever…?).
Brea builds an eerie, borderline creepy atmosphere in remarkably little space, leaving you no room for questions as the store clerk quells all your thoughts and worries. Until leaving the Plant Store starts to feel like a far-off dream.
A word of advice: a blank-faced girl in a window is never a good sign.
In the end, I can only urge you to read these anthologies. They are full of 'diamonds in the rough' – poets and novelists who offer a fresh perspective on the world we live in.
Arianna Saborio Vega is a student in class 3IEC at the International School Michel Lucius.
