Shades of the Past

We are delighted to announce the winners of the Robinson College Sykes Prize 2025. As was the case in previous years, the entries were of an extremely high standard, all displaying different imaginative and formal qualities. Once again, we warmly congratulate the winners of this year's prize on the originality of their achievements. The winners are listed below, along with links to their entries, and below that list is the original prompt for this year's award. The judges would like to offer thanks again to Keith Sykes for his generous support of the initiative.

First place: Jay Levontine (Umbra)

Second place: Anthony Picton (Camphor and Walnut)

Joint third place: Emily Sara MacLeod (This too, like all things), Evie Sutcliffe (White flowers on the windowsill), Louis Cameron (A Visitation)

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Natalia Ginzburg (1916-1991) was an Italian author whose work explores the complexity of family relationships, and politics, during and after the Fascist years and World War II. She wrote a wide range of novels, short stories and essays throughout her life, most of which were translated into English. She was a political activist, a member of the Italian Communist Party in the 1930s, and she was elected to Parliament as an independent politician in 1983.

Le voci della sera (Voices in the Evening) is set in a small Italian town in the aftermath of World War II and was first published in 1961. A link to extracts from Ginzburg's Italian text, coupled with D.M. Low's translation, can be found here.

The Robinson College Sykes Prize is encouraging responses to Ginzburg's text. Submissions can be in any written form that you choose (though not exceeding 2,000 words): stories, poems, film scripts, and graphic novels are all admissible.