The Univ Shakespeare Society presents

An evening at Univ with Andrew Motion (1971, English) poet, novelist and biographer

Wednesday 13 May 2026, 5-6pm

10 Merton Street Lecture Theatre, University College

Organised by Professor Joe Moshenska, Univ Beaverbook and Bouverie Tutorial Fellow in English

Univ Old Member Sir Andrew Motion (1971, English), poet, novelist and biographer, will read from and discuss his poems on 13 May at Univ.

Sir Andrew Motion FRSL was UK Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. His most recent collections are Waders (2024) and New and Selected Poems 1977-2023 (2023). He has also written two volumes of autobiography, In the Blood (2006) and Sleeping on Islands (2023), biographies of Philip Larkin and John Keats, and a book of essays, Ways of Life. He is the co-editor, with Stephen Regan, of The Penguin Book of Elegy.

He is co-founder of the Poetry Archive, which today houses 2,000 free poems and 500 poets’ work (including recordings of significant poets reading their work aloud), and Poetry by Heart, a poetry speaking competition for schools and colleges. He is currently Homewood Professor of the Arts at Johns Hopkins University in the USA.

From 2012-2016, Andrew Motion was President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, taking over from Bill Bryson (former CPRE people include Neville Chamberlain, David Puttnam, Jonathan Dimbleby, Prunella Scales and another Univ Old Member, Sir Max Hastings).

The event will be followed by drinks and nibbles in the lobby of 10 Merton Street. All are welcome, no registration required.

N.B.
Places are limited and guests will be seated on a first come, first served basis. If you are arriving from outside the College, please use the 12 Merton Street entrance and be aware of the temporary Oxford congestion charge scheme. Thank you.

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.