Thursday 23 May 2019

Oxford Professor of Poetry

Interesting piece in The Guardian about the election of the new Oxford Professor of Poetry. Of the three candidates, I think I'd probably go for Alice Oswald, although I can also see that Andrew McMillan would be an excellent choice. As for Todd Swift, well, you can follow the links in there to see why his candidacy has caused disquiet. You can also read this "statement from an observer" on his blog. You might be able to take a shrewd guess at who the observer is.

1 comment:

The Editors said...

Hi Matt,

Very excited about the possibility of Alice Oswald's potentially getting this gig (although Andrew McMillan's a really good poet, as a younger writer he's not quite such a safe pair of hands, if that makes sense.) Her statement sounds really interesting, a long way from the more staid form that the professorship can take. There's a likelihood that Oxford'll become a poetry Mecca in the coming months if she's selected.

Best,

Simon Turner