Oxford literature expert wins the 2026 E.M. Forster Award

An Oxford English literature academic at Oxford has been named the winner of this year's E. M. Forster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Sophie Ratcliffe is Professor of Literature and Creative Criticism in the Faculty of English Language and Literature and a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. Her research interests include work on the history of reading, materiality and emotion.

The E. M. Forster Award is a $20,000 award given to a writer from the United Kingdom or Ireland towards a stay in the United States. It’s part of a set of annual literary awards nominated by members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters to honour both established and emerging. This year, the selection committee members were Henri Cole, Adam Gopnik, and Yiyun Li, and it was chaired by Mona Simpson.

Professor Ratcliffe’s writing explores the intersections of literature, philosophy, history, creative criticism, and fiction. Her publications include The Lost Properties of Love (2019), published in the United States as Loss, A Love Story (2024), and On Sympathy (2008).

She is currently writing a novel, and completing an academic book on children and libraries, supported by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship. Her edition of P. G. Wodehouse’s Letters was reissued by Penguin in 2025. Alongside her academic work, Professor Ratcliffe is a regular reviewer for the national press.

Professor Ratcliffe has been interviewed for the University website, and more information on the award can be found here.