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Poetry Professor nominations close – 11 candidates confirmed

7 May 2010

Poetry is firmly in the spotlight at Oxford University this week as the nominations for the prestigious Professor of Poetry post closed at 4pm on Wednesday 5 May. This year’s field is the largest in recent years, and features 11 candidates in total seeking to take up the prestigious position and follow in the footsteps of Matthew Arnold, WH Auden and Seamus Heaney.

The wide-ranging list of candidates includes well-known names from the worlds of poetry, drama and the visual arts. Members of Convocation have until 4 June to register to vote, and all those eligible to vote must register by the deadline in order to cast their ballot. Voting will start on 21 May and close on 16 June (at midday BST).

In the past, voting has only been possible in person in Oxford on a single day but for the forthcoming election, the voting system has been updated. As well as the new online voting system, voting by ballot box will be available over a period of time, rather than on one day, for all those who have registered.

Dr Seamus Perry, Deputy Chair of the English Faculty Board, which hosts the chair, said: ‘The new voting procedures were designed to involve more people in the election of the Professor, because we recognise that while poetry matters to academics it matters a lot to many people who aren't academics too. And, happily, we seem to have encouraged many more nominations too, which must be a good thing. It is great to see that so many poets are keen to be associated with the Oxford Chair of Poetry. The field is both large and extremely diverse.’

Those eligible can vote for their preferred candidate to succeed Christopher Ricks. The successful candidate is scheduled to be in post for the new academic year in autumn 2010. An election to the Professorship of Poetry was held in summer 2009 but the winning candidate, Ruth Padel, decided not to take up the post.

The new Professor of Poetry will be announced once voting is completed and the votes are counted, on Friday 18 June 2010.

The complete list of candidates for this year’s professor of poetry election consists of:

Paula Claire, performance poet, artist and lecturer

Michael George Gibson, performer and ‘tunemaker’

Seán Haldane, poet and neuro-psychologist

Geoffrey Hill, poet, critic, and lecturer: formerly Professor of English at the University of Leeds, Cambridge and Boston University

Michael Horovitz, beat poet, saxophonist and literary impresario

Robert P Lacey

Steve Larkin, performance poet and storyteller

Roger Lewis, biographer of Anthony Burgess

Chris Mann, South African poet and musician Stephen Moss, journalist and former literary editor of The Guardian

Vaughan Pilikian, film-maker and Sanskrit scholar

Candidate statements will be published online and in the University Gazette by 20 May.

The duties of the Professor of Poetry include giving a public lecture each term and the Creweian Oration at the University's honorary degree ceremony every other year. The elected professor is one of the judges for the Newdigate Prize, the Chancellor's English Essay Prize, and the prize for an English poem on a sacred subject, and generally encourages the art of poetry in the University.

Professor of Poetry lectures were conceived in 1708 by Berkshire landowner Henry Birkhead and began after he bequeathed some money so the lectures could be a valuable supplement to the curriculum. He believed ‘the reading of the ancient poets gave keenness and polish to the minds of young men as well as to the advancement of more serious literature both sacred and human’.

The first poetry professor was Joseph Trapp who was in post from 1707 to 1718. Some of the subsequent distinguished Professors of Poetry include John Keble, Matthew Arnold, WH Auden and Seamus Heaney.

For more information about the post contact Julia Paolitto in the University of Oxford Press Office on 01865 280531 or julia.paolitto@admin.ox.ac.uk  

Notes to Editors:

  • Candidates for election have to be nominated by at least 12 members of Convocation and to accept their nomination in writing. Nominations by twelve members of Convocation other than the candidate (who need not be a member of Convocation) will be received by the Elections Office at the University Offices, Wellington Square up to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, 5 May 2010.
  • Members of Convocation must register their intention to vote on http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/councilsec/poetry/. If you are unable to register on-line, please call +44 (0)1865 (2)70236 
  • The Professor is elected for a period of five years, and is not eligible for re-election. The Professor receives a small stipend (currently £7,000), plus £40 for each Creweian Oration, plus travel expenses for the Oration.
  • According to the University Statutes, membership of Convocation is defined as 'all the former student members of the University who have been admitted to a degree (other than an honorary degree) of the University, and any other persons who are members of Congregation or who have retired having been members of Congregation on the date of their retirement'. It is estimated that Convocation has about 300,000 members in total. Congregation consists of about 4,000 academics and senior administrators of the University.
  • The first Professor was the long-forgotten Joseph Trapp; but the Chair was subsequently held by many distinguished men of letters in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, including two Thomas Wartons – father and son – and the poet and religious leader John Keble. It was Keble’s godson, the great Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold, elected twice to the Professorship (in 1857 and 1862), who created the Professorship in its modern form: Arnold spoke about literary matters of contemporary concern, and was the first Professor to deliver his lectures in English (as opposed to Latin).
  • Sir Christopher Ricks was not the first Professor of Poetry to have been a scholar rather than a poet – for example, the famous Shakespearean scholar A.C. Bradley was Professor from 1901-6. But many of the most celebrated holders of the Chair have been eminent poets, including W.H. Auden (1956-61) and Robert Graves (1961-6). More recent illustrious incumbents have included the poets Roy Fuller (1968-73), John Wain (1973-78), Peter Levi (1984-9), Seamus Heaney (1989-94), James Fenton (1994-9), and Paul Muldoon (1999-2004). There is also a distinguished tradition of unsuccessful candidates, including C.S. Lewis, F.R. Leavis, Robert Lowell, and Stephen Spender. 
  • Details of the candidates will be published in the University Gazette, and on the web at www.admin.ox.ac.uk/councilsec/gov/poetry.shtml