Poetry competition winners 2025
2025 marks the third successive year of the Univ Library Poetry Competition, and we think it鈥檚 fair to boast that the annual observance is now a college tradition. The Univ Library Team were thrilled with the quality of poems we received this year, and we enjoyed an animated morning of deliberation as we chose our winning poems.
As in previous years, Univites from across our student, academic, professional staff and Old Member communities shared their poetry with us, and we were really pleased to read such a great variety of subjects and styles. Choosing our favourites was not easy, as we were sent 31 poems in total, from 17 poets. Two of the judges exceeded our shortlisting limit and advocated for four poems instead of the agreed three.
But, in the end, our winner was clear as her poem was shortlisted by every member of the Library Team. We are very pleased to announce that our winner is Dr Laura Varnam, Lecturer in Old and Middle English, with her poem 鈥楤acksliding.鈥� Laura鈥檚 poem is a response to Chaucer鈥檚 鈥楾roilus and Criseyde鈥�. We appreciate that she gives voice to Criseyde, where Chaucer presents the male perspective. We also enjoyed Laura鈥檚 use of form and simile, especially the imagery of the knot and the tent relating to Criseyde鈥檚 freedom from both Troy and Troilus. Laura is the deserving winner of this very cute ornamental book-leaf teapot (pictured above)!
The quality of this year鈥檚 poems was so high, that for the first time we have two runners-up:
Sam Rubinstein鈥檚 (2024, DPhil History) poem 鈥楢gainst Poetry-as-鈥淲ellbeing鈥濃�� simply made us laugh the most. His inventive rhyming and enjoyably wry ribbing of various Oxford wellbeing strategies is really fun, and also reminds us that there is no one-size-fits-all fix. We fully endorse his final coda, and encourage everyone to practice poetry as procrastination.
Madison Jennings (2024, Master of Public Policy) was kind enough to share with us three of her poems, and we have chosen 鈥楳others on the Other Side鈥� as our favourite. We were struck by the feeling of dislocation that she creates through the combination of lay-out and language, and we particularly liked her water imagery and its link to new beginnings.
Huge congratulations to Laura, Sam and Madison! We would like to sincerely thank everyone who shared their poems with us this year. Below you can read the winning poems, plus a selection of honourable mentions.
Winner: Laura Varnam
Backsliding
For bothe Troilus and Troie town
Shal knotteles thorughout hire herte slide.
(Chaucer, Troilus and Criseyde, Book V:768-9)
Criseyde speaks from the Greek camp:
That city was never mine to begin with.
Like a letter thrust into a dress,
its corners prick and itch.
I cleared a space for it to room with me,
but cities are never faithful.
Not that they loved me less,
I just unbalanced them.
So they let me loose and I slid
slipshod and slipper-toed to here.
A tent has less intent than you鈥檇 think.
Wind-whipped wide, it鈥檚 easier to let
go here, to unpin. When I reach for it,
the knot has already undone itself.
Runner up: Sam Rubinstein
Runner up: Madison Jennings
Honourable mention: Isabella Penna
Honourable mention: Li An Tan
Honourable mention: Emma Jeffries
Copyright Laura Varnam, Sam Rubinstein, Madison Jennings, Isabella Penna, Li An Tan, and Emma Jeffries, 2025. All rights reserved.