Submissions for Science Poetry 2018 is now closed.
This year 110 poems have entered the competition, of which 25 poems can be listened to.
(You can still register and vote for your favourites. Also, if you have already submitted your poem, you can still add the audio track to it.)

Science-Poetry Competition calls for poems on a theme of science and engineering written by any student in the University of Manchester. Since 2012, 957 poems entered the competition, of which 168 poems can be listened to. Each year, the winner and runners up are decided by renowned poets Wendy Cope and Lachlan Mackinnon from a shortlist of accepted poems.

Up till now entry has been restricted to student in the Faculty of Science and Engineering, but we are pleased to announce any student in the university can now enter, and there is a prize for the best poem in each faulty (Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health; Faculty of Science and Engineering; Faculty of Humanities).

 
Year Winner Runners Up Readers' Choice
2017 Peter Thompson Seevana Raghubeer
Alexander Eaton
Okechukwu Ubi
2016 Callum Cuttle Donald McColl
Jennifer Eyley
Bilal Shahid
Aantonia Newell
2014 Holly Barden Sarah Shepherd
Robert Young
Mohit Sharma
2013 Ruth Sullivan Zhiwei He
Daniel Childs
Georgios Panayiotou
2012 Peter Thompson Michael Cridland
Kathryn McCarron
Muhammed Nurul
 
 
 

Welcome to Science-Poetry

C. P. Snow famously gave a stark analysis in his Two Cultures lecture of the split between Science and Humanities, and argued that the breakdown of communication between the two cultures of modern society was a major hindrance to solving the world's problems.

Some years later, the Engineering Council placed an advertisement in The Times; it ran:

Why isn't there an Engineer's Corner in Westminster Abbey? In Britain we have made more fuss of a ballad than a blueprint...

This prompted the poet Wendy Cope to write a satrical poem, "Engineer's Corner", which included the lines:

We make more fuss of ballads than of blueprints -
That's why so many poets end up rich,
While engineers scrape by in cheerless garrets.
Who needs a bridge or dam? Who needs a ditch?

A poetry competition at The University of Manchester, organised by Dr Peter Fenn, set out to show that the creativity and innovation necessary in science and engineering can inspire poetry too. The competition calls for poems written by any student in the University of Manchester, showing the creative and human aspects of science and engineering.

Welcome

Rules and Prizes

Who can take part?

Who are the judges?

Who will win?

What's with the colours?

 

Popular in 2017:

 

Popular in 2016:

 

Popular in 2014: