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Cambridge University Library

 

Entries are now open for the 2019 Rose book-collecting prize. The competition offers Cambridge students the chance to win £500 by writing and talking about their own book collections.

Last year’s winner, Nikita Makarchev of Magdalene College, is a collector of early twentieth-century avant-garde Russian poetry. His collection was also highly commended for the ABA national book-collecting prize.

Collections are judged on their coherence and the intelligence and originality that has gone into putting them together rather than their monetary value. One of last year’s finalists, Julie Blake, boasted that many of the modern school poetry anthologies in her collection were picked up online for as little as 1p (plus postage).  

In addition to £500 and 10 years’ free membership of the Friends of Cambridge University Library, the winner may also have the opportunity to curate an exhibition of books from their own and the Library’s collections in the entrance hall of CUL. Nikita’s exhibition will take place in March 2019; Julie’s in January 2019.

The prize is open to all current undergraduate and postgraduate Cambridge students. Details of how to submit an entry are online and the closing date is Friday 25 January 2019.