Congratulations to Austin Spendlowe (Lincoln College) for winning the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize 2025 for their composition titled: 'Jongleurs’.
The judges said: "We are pleased to award this year’s Sir Roger Newdigate prize to “Jongleurs.” Although we admired both poems by Austin Spendlowe, “Jongleurs” especially answered the theme with its resonant echoes of Wallace Stevens, its answering of the Nursery Rhyme, “Hey, Diddle Diddle,” and its otter slinking “sotto voce” into the stream, a “warped echo” in the rippling water, distorted as the back of a spoon. We admired the poem’s lean, muscular music (“coughs up tuppence,” “smoky brachioles,” and especially “the river tinkling in receipt”) and its playful approach to language. Like the “jongleurs” of the title, the poem sings and entertains, juggling its many shiny images while carrying a catchy tune."
Spendlowe commented: "On receipt of the Sir Roger Newdigate Prize 2025 I have these things to say: (1) thank you to the judges for their cheering comments; (2) thank you to all those, near and far, who have kept me at my desk, you know who you are; and (3) turn off 'Do Not Disturb' -- any manner of strange and wonderful email alerts might arise."
Congratulations also to Mina Yücelen (Balliol College) who was awarded proxime/second place for their poem 'The story of Echo came to me in an illustrated book of Homer’s tales'. The judges would like to thank all those who entered.
The judges said: "We would also like to highly commend the poem starting “The story of Echo came to me in an illustrated book of Homer’s tales” by Mina Yücelen. We admired the scope of this poet, who effortlessly brought together Greek myth, archaeology, and diachronic strata of proper nouns, religions, and registers (Homeros, Mehmet, “pissed on,” a “purring of myrrh”), echoing down the ages to a personal present."
Yücele commented: “I am over the moon to be commended — it is such an incredible honour. The way I view and write poems has completely transformed over my three years here, and I feel so grateful for the opportunity to give words to this. The Ihlara Valley near Cappadocia is a mystical place — you feel the air change as you descend into the valley.”
The theme this year was ‘Echo/echoes’. The judging panel was composed of Dr Erica McAlpine, Professor Helen Small, and Professor A. E. Stallings.
