The Univ Library Team is delighted that our inaugural poetry competition has been a huge success! We received 20 entries from 17 poets, with students, academics, staff and Old Members from across our community taking part (plus a cheeky entry from the Bodleian Conservation librarians…)

The poems we received were of an exceptionally high quality, and it was a genuine pleasure to read the works that were submitted. Choosing only one winner and one runner-up was very difficult, but we had an enjoyably lively discussion while making our final decision. We would like to thank everyone who took part for sharing their poetry with us, and for taking time during a very busy term to pause, reflect, and write.

Without further ado, we are excited to announce that our winner is Sahar Malaika (2021, English). Her poem “How to Tie a Sari” made us all smile, and we thought the rhythm conveyed frustration really well while punctuating the experience with brilliant pops of humour. Sahar is the recipient of the coveted RadCam teapot, though we are sure her poetry will be celebrated in the future with even greater accolades.

Our runner-up is Rónán Poots (2021, Engineering). He wrote his poem “Cinnamon Whirls” on his study notes in a moment of frustration after getting a question wrong, and we thought having that context evident on the poem juxtaposed really nicely with the theme of companionship.

Well done to our winners, and to everyone who took part. We plan to run our 6th Week Poetry Competition again next year, and hope that even more Univites will have a go at writing a few stanzas.

Published: 3 March 2023

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