English Prize

Queens' College invites submissions for the English Prize 2021, which will be awarded to the best essay submitted by a Year 12 (Lower Sixth Form) student. The winner will receive a £500 prize; depending on the strength of the field of submissions, honourable mentions may also be made.

Competition Guidelines & Questions 2021

Entries must be submitted no later than 5pm on Friday 15th April 2022 to tutorial.secretary@queens.cam.ac.uk.

  • Please see competition guidelines here
  • The word limit is 2,500 words (including footnotes, references, illustration captions, and any other text)
  • Each entry should be accompanied by a completed Cover Sheet
  • Entries received after the deadline, submitted without a cover sheet or over the maximum word limit will not be considered

The winner and any honourable mention(s) will be notified by letter in May 2022 and will be invited to attend the Queens' College Open Day in July 2022.

Previous Winners

  • 2015-16: Julianna Barker (Ysgol Bro Pedr) ‘The Uses of Spectral Trees: Locke and Emily Brontë on Conveying Knowledge’
  • 2016-17: Lottie McCrindell (Latymer School) ‘An Awkward Lyric’. Later graduated from Queens' with a First Class degree in English
  • 2017-18: Lucy Thynne (Lady Margaret School Fulham) 'A Hunger for Articulation: examining the encounter between the "tongue-tied" and "articulation" in poetry.' Runner up: Helena Atkin (Lady Eleanor Holles School in Hampton) ‘Is poetic language its own language’.
  • 2018-19: Mia Griso Dryer (The Latymer School) “Talking proper: language, liberation and oppression” (now studying at Queens') and Matilda S (St Paul's Girls' School) “Bell hooks on female liberation from oppressive mind-body dualism: intimacy and language in women’s literature”