Headington Poetry Competition 2001
The Winners

Twenty adults and 28 children entered the Headington Poetry Competition 2001. Professor Paul Muldoon, President of the Poetry Society and Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, judged the entries, and the winning poems are reproduced below. The adult winners came from Barton, Old Headington, the Headington Hill area, and New Headington.

Adult winners

Child winners

All other adult entries

All other child entries

The contest excited press interest when mechanic Reg Burnley of Barton knocked science fiction writer Brian Aldiss into second place:

Oxford Mail, 9 January 2002: “Mechanic wins top poetry prize”

News even reached Spain: from www.novafantasia.com for March 2002 comes the following report:

Reg Burnley, un mecánico retirado que vive en Oxford (Inglaterra), gañou a competición local de poesía Headington 2001, un feito de pouco interese se non fora porque o finalista, que enviou tres poemas, foi Brian Aldiss, o popular escritor de ciéncia ficción (autor entre outros do libro no que se baseou Spielberg para a súa Intelixéncia Artificial).