Photo of winners and judges; caption: (from left to right) Henry North, Judith Drinkwater, Sarah Hofmann, Christina Koning, Maria Karinatan, Martin Ennis, Sophie Boldt, Adam Crothers.
The annual Ridding Reading Prize took place in the Fellows’ Drawing Room on Monday 9 March 2026. The competition is a Girton tradition founded in honour of Caroline Mary Ridding, who won a scholarship to Girton to read Classics in 1883, later becoming a renowned Sanskrit and Pali scholar.
2026 Judging panel
- Dr Adam Crothers
- Judith Drinkwater
- Dr Martin Ennis (Chair)
- Christina Koning (External Adjudicator)
- Dr Henry North
2026 Competition
The passages selected for this year’s competition were largely in keeping with the theme of this year’s Girton Talks, ‘Taking Stock: Global Changes and Challenges in the 21st Century’. Applicants represented almost a dozen different subject areas and were spread fairly evenly across three undergraduate years as well as masters and PhD programmes.
The fourteen contestants all tackled the passages chosen for Round 1:
- Round 1 verse: An extract from Runaround by Isaac Asimov
- Round 1 prose: ‘An Unnerving Lesson’ by Elizabeth Jennings
Five contestants were selected by the judges to continue to the second round, where they tackled the following passages:
- Round 2 prose: An extract from Great Nature’s Second Course by Ursula Le Guin
- Round 2 verse: ‘What if’ by Benjamin Zephaniah
- Round 2 unseen (with two minutes’ preparation): ‘American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin’ by Terrance Hayes
2026 Winners:
Main Prize: £100 to Maria Karinatan (3rd year, Classics)
Judges’ Special Commendation Prize: £50 to Sarah Hofmann (2nd year, Architecture)
Audience Prize: £50 to Sophie Boldt (1st year, TRPR)
The evening began with a splendid buffet supper for competitors and judges; this was kindly organised by the Junior Bursar, Maureen Hackett, and supplied by Girton’s excellent Catering team. During the judges’ deliberations, the audience was given an account of Caroline Ridding’s life and activities by the Librarian, Jenny Blackhurst; they were then treated to music from pianist Loris Marcel (PhD, Chemistry). The thanks of the judges go to all the students who took part, and to everyone who contributed to making the evening enjoyable and entertaining. In particular, they would like to thank the Librarian, whose excellent organisational skills ensured that both preparations for the evening and the competition itself ran very smoothly.