Poetry at Wolfson College
Led by our resident poetry enthusiasts Debbie Pullinger, Wolfson Fellow, and Caroline Banerjee, Student Recruitment Officer, Wolfson members have the opportunity to enjoy poetry in many forms throughout the academic year.
Taking place annually, the College hosts a much-loved poetry night - complete with wine and cheese - where College members are invited to read aloud their favourite poems, or simply enjoy the performances.
For those eager to put pen to paper, Debbie and Caroline also run an annual creative poetry writing workshop, open to all levels of experience.
College members are invited to submit original poetry and artwork to our annual open call, which has a different theme each year. The chosen pieces are then published in print and online in our WolfWords anthologies, and selected poems are displayed in a Poetry Trail which is on display in the College gardens at various times of the year.
Read our WolfWords anthologies
The result of a series of open calls, Wolfson's WolfWords anthologies include works by members from across the College community, including students, Fellows, staff and alumni.
2023: the soil has started to shift
2024: a little branch
2025: press play
Open Call
We are delighted to announce the open call for the 2026 edition of the WolfWords anthology. The theme for this year’s collection is 'lost and found'.
Poetry conveners
Debbie Pullinger is a Fellow of Wolfson, and her research interests focus on the experience of poetry, and the relationships between text and voice, page and body. As well as editing the Wolfwords anthology, she runs various poetry events in College with Caroline Banerjee. She writes poetry (as Debbie Whitton Spriggs) and her first poetry collection, Wassail! was published in 2024.
Caroline Banerjee is the Outreach and Student Recruitment Officer at Wolfson, and is an accredited practitioner of Widening Access and Widening Participation in Higher Education. Alongside her job, she is a PhD student in Contemporary Medieval Literature, working under the supervision of Dr Hetta Howes at City St George’s, University of London. She is particularly interested in embodied translation practice, collective memory, and feminist networks of care. She is also a practicing poet; her work has been published in various literary journals, magazines and anthologies, including The Black Spring Press Group’s The Best New British and Irish Poets. She enjoys working alongside Debbie Pullinger to share and create poetry and art within College.
