Congratulations to Magdalen student Angus Barrett, who has been highly commended in the 2026 Jon Stallworthy Poetry Prize for his poem ‘Crescendo’.
The annual competition is open to all postgraduate students at the University of Oxford. This year, the theme was ‘Music’, which attracted a record number of entries from across the colleges. Angus was one of seven poets shortlisted for the final award event held at Wolfson College on 19 February.
While the main prize was awarded to Howard Anglin of Linacre College for his poem ‘Kühe-Reyen’, the judges extended their congratulations to the entire shortlist for the exceptionally high standard of work this year. For those who couldn’t attend the ceremony in person, a video of the award event is available to watch on the Wolfson College YouTube channel.
If you would like to read the poems themselves, the shortlisted entries will be published later this year in the Jon Stallworthy Poetry Prize booklet. These will be available to read throughout the Oxford libraries.
Well done, Angus.
