The competition for the Oxford poetry chair is looking more and more like a student council race, as members of the short-list rally against each other with Facebook groups, original poems, and promises of bought beer.
The Guardian reports that candidate Steve Larkin is in the lead with a little over 300 people in his Facebook group, while Geoffrey Hill, “the best-known candidate,” has just 227. (After the article, it jumped to 258.) Biographer Roger Lewis called his competition “nice old codgers” in an article, and Sanskrit scholar Vaughan Pilikian promised to “pull poetry from the drawing rooms and the garrets and the palaces, and send it forth.” Meanwhile, journalist Stephen Moss promised to buy a drink for anyone who votes for him.
Voting for the five-year position starts on Friday and ends in the middle of June. There are 11 candidates left. Will they stop at nothing? [via]