Wednesday 25 February 2026, 5.30-6.15pm
Online via Zoom

Poetry as Creative Criticism: A Reading of Beowulf

Dr Laura Varnam, Lecturer in Old and Middle English Literature

The Master, Baroness Amos, is delighted to invite Old Members, friends of Univ, students, and staff to the next Univ Online Talk, Poetry as Creative Criticism: A Reading of Beowulf, with Dr Laura Varnam. This event will take place online as a talk, followed by a short Q&A session, led by the Master.

In this talk, Dr Varnam, will read from, and discuss, her poetry inspired by the women of the Old English epic Beowulf. Dr Varnam’s feminist poetry project is a form of “creative criticism”, a burgeoning field in the humanities, in which critical responses to literary texts take a deliberately creative form (in this case, lyric poetry). Dr Varnam will explore her creative-critical reading of Beowulf in both theoretical and practical terms, centred upon a reading of her prize-winning poetry sequence Grendel’s Mother Bites Back (Primers Volume Seven, Nine Arches Press, 2024).

Please contact rsvp@univ.ox.ac.uk with any questions or queries about the event.

Please register for the Zoom link here

Please note that audio, photographs and video footage may be taken throughout our events. These may be used by the College for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and on social media, or in any third-party publication. Please contact the event organiser if you have any concerns or if you wish to be exempted from this activity.

Published: 26 January 2026

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