Detailed below are the two prizes for Poetry and Play writing, administered by Churchill College in conjunction with the Faculty of English and the Marlowe Society.
Additional information
The John Kinsella and Tracy Ryan poetry prize
The prize is open to those in statu pupillari in the University of Cambridge. The prize will be awarded for an original, previously unpublished verse composition in any form, of not more than 500 lines in length. Candidates may enter more than one poem. The prize will be a single award of £500, though a shared prize may be awarded in the event of two equally appropriate candidates. The winning poem will be published in The Churchill Review.
The prize will not be awarded if no entries are of adequate quality; it will not be awarded twice to the same person. The judges may, if they wish, make honourable mention of another entry or entries. The prize will be administered jointly by the Faculty of English and Churchill College. There will be three judges, one from the College, one from the Faculty, and one external judge who will normally be a practising poet.
John Kinsella and Tracy Ryan poetry prize adjudicators, Tim Cribb and Lee Ann Brown, and Senior Tutor, Richard Partington, with the 2018 winner, Bethany Dubow.
The Other Prize
The Other Prize is open to those in statu pupillari in the University of Cambridge. It will be awarded for an original, unperformed play of any length. Candidates may enter more than one play. The Prize will be a single award of £500, though a shared prize may be awarded in the event of two equally appropriate candidates; the Prize will not be awarded if no entries are of adequate quality. The winning play will also be staged by the Marlowe Society.
The Prize may not be awarded twice to the same person. Adjudication will be in two stages. A shortlist will be selected by a panel consisting of one appointed by Churchill College, one by Homerton College Theatre Department, one by the Marlowe Society.
Further details, and testimonies from past entrants, are available on the Marlowe Society website:
Marlowe Society Website: The Other Prize
Note: The current content is correct, however while the links provide more information they are slightly outdated.
Entries
Submissions this year should be made using the online form below. We recommend that you open the link in an ‘incognito’ or ‘InPrivate’ browser tab, as you will need to sign in to your University Google account (through Raven) to access the form; if you are logged in to other (e.g. personal) Google accounts, you may be denied permission to open the form.
Submissions should be in PDF form and should not contain any identifying information (e.g. your name, CRSid, etc.).
If you have any technical issues, please email tutorial.assistant@chu.cam.ac.uk.
The closing date for entries is the end of Lent Full Term 2022, Friday 18th March. The award of the prize will be announced by the end of Easter Term 2022.
Most Recent Winners
2021 Winners
Poetry Prize
The 2021 prize was won by Talin Tahajian, for her poem ‘New Year Poem’.
Other Prize
The 2021 Other Prize was won by Chakira Alin, for her play ‘Heroes’. We also congratulated Joe Venable, whose play ‘Rapture’ received the runner-up commendation.
Previous Winners
2020 Winners
Poetry Prize
The 2020 prize was jointly won by Aidan Tulloch (Christ’s College) for his poem Image 4 19:02 and Mariam Abdel-Razek (Trinity College) for her poem 2234.
Other Prize
The 2020 Other Prize was won by William Leckie (Pembroke College) for his play No one needs to know. We also congratulated Helena Coggan, whose play Voyager received the runner-up commendation.
2019 Winners
Poetry Prize
The 2019 prize was won by Tanvi Roberts for her poem Echo.
Other Prize
The 2019 Other Prize was won by Aaron Kilercioglu for his play Telescope. We also congratulated Cerian Craske, whose play Slug received the runner-up commendation.
