A.E. STALLINGS WINS THE ANGLO-HELLENIC LEAGUE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2023 FOR

THIS AFTERLIFE : SELECTED POEMS

PRESS NOTICE

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2023 is A.E.

Stallings for This Afterlife: Selected Poems (Manchester: Carcanet 2022).

Announcing the result of this year’s competition on Monday 19 June at a ceremony in the Great Hall of King’s College London, in the presence of the League’s Chief Patron & President, HRH Prince Michael of Kent, and a large audience in the hall and online, Prof. Peter Frankopan, the chair of judges, said:

This was a formidable year with a stunning set of entries. The range of scholarship, creativity and interests in all things Greek – from ideas of the body to those about maths, from aesthetics to myths. We were thrilled to shortlist two books of poetry, and genuinely excited to announce A.E. Stallings and This Afterlife: Selected Poems as the winner of the Runciman Award 2023. This is a sparkling, joyful and glorious collection. We areso pleased, too, that this is the first time the award has been won by a poet – Homer and his many peers will be smiling at our choice.

The winner of the Award, Alicia Stallings, said:

I am stunned at this news. I was thrilled making the short list with a book of poems, and among such excellent contenders; I didn’t really think poetry would have a strong chance. A selected poems is a lifetime’s work— and in this case, it turns out, a lifetime of creative engaging with Greek mythology, Greek history, modern Greece, and the continuum that is Greek. I couldn’t be more heartened by this honour and thrilled with this affirmation, for myself, but also for poetry, and those very Greek goddesses, the Muses.

The Chair of the Council of the League, Dr John Kittmer, said:

‘Congratulations to Alicia Stallings for winning the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2023: the first time in the history of the prize that the award has gone to a book of poems. It is richly deserved. It has been a pleasure, as always, to work with publishers, authors and our judges to bring about this competition. We are grateful particularly to Peter Frankopan, now stepping down after three years as chair of our judging panels; he has performed a remarkable service.’

The announcement of the winner of the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2023 was made on Monday 19 June, 7pm at King’s College London, which co-hosted the event with the Anglo-Hellenic League. Prof. Dame Mary Beard (University of Cambridge) gave the keynote address on ‘How do we best argue for Classics?’. Prof. Peter Frankopan reviewed the longlisted and shortlisted books on behalf of the panel ofjudges and announced the winner. The winner presented her book with a short talk and readings. Addresses were also given by Prof. Marion Thain (KCL), Dr John Kittmer (the League) and Prof. Gonda Van Steen (KCL).

The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award is sponsored by the A. C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and the A. G. Leventis Foundation.




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NOTES FOR EDITORS:

  1. The Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award was conceived in 1983, as an initiative of Earl Jellicoe, the then chairman of the League, in honour of Sir Steven Runciman, the distinguished historian of Byzantium and longest-serving chairman of the League (1951-1967). It was first awarded in 1986 and has been given annually since then.
  • The award is given to the best book (or books) published in English in the previous year on a Greek subject. It aims to stimulate interest in Greek history and culture from earliest times to the present; to reward and encourage good and accessible writing, of which Runciman’s works are an example; and to promote a wider knowledge and understanding of Greece’s contribution to civilisation and values. The prize may be awarded for a work in the field of history, literary studies, biography, travel and topography, the arts, architecture, archaeology, the environment, social and political sciences or current affairs; or for a work of fiction, poetry or drama. Translations from Greek literature into English are also eligible. Books published in 2022 were eligible for the award in 2023.
  • The panel of judges for the award in 2023 comprised: Prof. Peter Frankopan (chair), Prof. Judith Mossman, Dr Sofka Zinovieff, Dr Vassiliki Kolocotroni and Dr Oliver Thomas. The judges announced their long list of 24 titles on 10 January and their short list of seven titles on 12 April (see www.runcimanaward.org and www.anglohellenicleague.org).
  • A.E. Stallings is an American poet, critic, and translator who lives in Athens. She has published five volumes of poetry, most recently This Afterlife: Selected Poems (Carcanet). Her most recent verse translation is the (illustrated) pseudo-Homeric The Battle Between the Frogs and the Mice (Paul Dry Books), which was longlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2020/1; for Penguin Classics she has published a translation of Hesiod Works and Days, which was shortlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic League Runciman Award 2019, and a translation of Lucretius. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim, USA Artists, and MacArthur Foundations, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Since 2015, she has led a poetry workshop for refugee women (from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Congo, etc.) in Athens at the Melissa Network for Migrant Women. On 16 June 2023, it was announced that she has been elected the next Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford.

Council of the League

The Anglo-Hellenic League

c/o The Hellenic Centre

16-18 Paddington Street

London W1U 5AS

20 June 2023