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Poetry & Play Writing Prizes
The Salt Marlowe Poetry Prize
The Methuen Marlowe Other Prize
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.
Faculty of English John Kinsella: Poetry Foundation
Cambridge University Marlowe Dramatic Society
Previously known as the John Kinsella & 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 The prize will be awarded for an original, previously unpublished verse composition in any form, of not more than 500 lines in length.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 Methuen Marlowe 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 the Marlowe Society and one from Methuen Drama.
Further details, and testimonies from past entrants, are available on the Marlowe Society website:
Marlowe Society Website: The Other Prize
Marlowe Society Advert
Note: The current content is correct, however while the links provide more information they are slightly outdated.
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.). Each individual entry for consideration should be submitted as a separate PDF file.
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 2023, Friday 17th March. The award of the prize will be announced by the end of Easter Term 2023.
2022 Prize Winners (from left to right): Maddie Lynes, Gabriel Rolfe and Eyoel Abebaw-Mesfin.
The 2022 prize was won by Gabriel Rolfe, for the poem 'Nullarbor'.
'Other' Prize for Drama
The 2022 'Other' Prize was won by Maddie Lynes for the play 'Her Very Many Faces'. We also congratulated Eyoel Abebaw-Mesfin, whose play 'My Truth' received the runner-up commendation.
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.
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.
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.