\u00a0<\/p>\n
We are delighted to announce that recent alumna Isabelle Baafi has won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection<\/a>. Isabelle’s extraordinary work is available in all good bookshops; you can also buy it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 We are delighted to announce that recent alumna Isabelle Baafi has won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Isabelle’s extraordinary work is available in all good bookshops; you can also buy it here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni_news","category-publications"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/43-images-for-wordpress-1.png?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p40Qhf-C1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2326,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=2326","url_meta":{"origin":2357,"position":0},"title":"Isabelle Baafi shortlisted for the T.S.Eliot Prize","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"October 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Congratulations to our former student Isabelle Baafi, whose debut collection Chaotic Good, already shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection, has now been shortlisted for the prestigious T.S.Eliot Prize as well.","rel":"","context":"In "Alumni News"","block_context":{"text":"Alumni News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2349,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=2349","url_meta":{"origin":2357,"position":1},"title":"What I’m Reading Now","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"October 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A beautiful reflection by Departmental Lecturer Kate Longworth on her relationship with reading I didn\u2019t realise until I sat down to write this how consuming, even dysfunctional, a relationship I have with reading and with books. I think about reading possibly more than anything else. Even eating. I currently have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "MSt News"","block_context":{"text":"MSt News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":499,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=499","url_meta":{"origin":2357,"position":2},"title":"Poet Don Paterson to read at Woodstock: 22 May 2013","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"May 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Don Paterson's poetry has won awards including the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Prize, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Award, and (twice) the TS Eliot Prize. Most recently, Rain won the 2009 Forward prize. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1872,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1872","url_meta":{"origin":2357,"position":3},"title":"MSt alumna M J Holmes’ pamphlet “Dihedral” published by Live Canon","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"December 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"MSt alumna M J Holmes' pamphlet \"Dihedral\" has been published by Live Canon. From the announcement: \"Joint winner of the 2020 Live Canon Pamphlet Competition. A Forward Prize nominee and Hawthornden Fellow, Mary-Jane has won the Bridport Poetry prize, the Bath Novella-in-Flash Prize, the Martin Starkie Poetry Prize, Dromineer Fiction\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":696,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=696","url_meta":{"origin":2357,"position":4},"title":"Kellogg College Creative Writing Seminar Series: Emma Jones, 5th March 2015","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"January 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cThe Medium of Poetry\u201d with MSt tutor Emma Jones Mawby Room, Kellogg College, 62 Banbury Road 5 pm (refreshments) for 5.30 pm All are welcome and no bookings are necessary Emma Jones\u2019 first book, The Striped World, was published by Faber & Faber in 2009, was awarded the Forward Prize\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1576,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1576","url_meta":{"origin":2357,"position":5},"title":"MSt alumna Maya Popa interviews MSt tutors Jane Draycott & Jenny Lewis for Carcanet blog","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"October 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Jane Draycott and Jenny Lewis: Recalibrating the Classics MSt alumna Maya Popa interviewed MSt tutors Jane Draycott & Jenny Lewis for Carcanet blog, which is now available to read online. From the announcement; \"This week on the blog,\u00a0Jenny Lewis\u00a0and\u00a0Jane Draycott\u00a0talk to Maya C. Popa about their\u00a0translations\u00a0Gilgamesh Retold\u00a0and\u00a0Pearl.\u00a0As part of the\u00a0Bookblast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alumni News"","block_context":{"text":"Alumni News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-KMQF5uZPPf0\/W8RopKlBuXI\/AAAAAAAAEUo\/AiPCIgXR9V4NtB_hDjZJNgmTGiC_IUfrACLcBGAs\/s640\/bookblast%2B10x10%2Btour%2Bpublishers%2Bbanner%2Bfinal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-KMQF5uZPPf0\/W8RopKlBuXI\/AAAAAAAAEUo\/AiPCIgXR9V4NtB_hDjZJNgmTGiC_IUfrACLcBGAs\/s640\/bookblast%2B10x10%2Btour%2Bpublishers%2Bbanner%2Bfinal.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-KMQF5uZPPf0\/W8RopKlBuXI\/AAAAAAAAEUo\/AiPCIgXR9V4NtB_hDjZJNgmTGiC_IUfrACLcBGAs\/s640\/bookblast%2B10x10%2Btour%2Bpublishers%2Bbanner%2Bfinal.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2357"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2560,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions\/2560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}