The only female contender and the only American in the contest to become the next professor of poetry at Oxford has spoken of how it had originally “never crossed my mind” to throw her hat into the ring.

AE (Alicia) Stallings, who lives in Athens, said an email from a previous Oxford professor of poetry had persuaded her to enter the contest. Writing in The Best American Poetry blog, she said: “An e-mail arrived, out of the blue, from one of the previous holders of the position, the critic Christopher Ricks. The subject line was ‘An Inquiry,’ and it was characteristically brief: ‘It came to me that you would be an excellent professor of poetry at Oxford. (Geoffrey Hill has not long to go.) Would this possibility interest you?’ It had never crossed my mind. But I said yes I’d give it a go, and we were off.”

Stallings added: “All at once, I found myself in a sort of Wonderland, and in a horse race …  as well as a literary-political game of chess. I was standing in a unique election, a mixture of that rarest of things, direct democracy, and one of the most rarefied: only Oxford graduates (and other members of Convocation) may vote. The position was established in 1708 by Henry Birkhead, who founded it on the notion that ‘the reading of the ancient poets gave keenness and polish to the minds of young men’. It was originally only open to clergymen from Merton.

“It’s been an intense roller coaster too: reaching out to the press, reading virulent blog posts (note to self—do not read the comments), asking major academics and writers for support. But also exciting, even moving--generous endorsements from publications such as the TLS …  You learn who your friends are (and foes) in the literary community.”

The winner of the contest will be announced at the end of this week. Frontrunners are Simon Armitage and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka. The two other contenders are Ian Gregson, professor of English at the University of Bangor, and psychotherapist Sean Haldane, who has published seven volumes of poetry.

Background: 'Self-schooled' poet Simon Armitage bids to become Oxford professor of poetry