Douglas Adams Prizewinners Announced

Two St John's students have been awarded this year's Douglas Adams Prize, presented for a piece of humorous writing in the irreverent style of the late Johnian writer Douglas Adams, best known for creating the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Postgraduates Jenny Judge and Julia Powles won the prize for their poem "The Cartesian Kennel" which can be read here.

Fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide will also commemorate Douglas Adams today by carrying towels in his honour for the annual celebration of 'Towel Day'.

Towel Day began in 2001 on an internet forum and has since spread to include events and celebrations around the globe. Held every year on 25 May, fans of Douglas Adams demonstrate their appreciation for his work by carrying a towel with them throughout the day. The symbolism of the towel comes from a passage in The Hitchhiker's Guide, where Adams writes:

"A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough."

A great selection of Douglas Adams' books can be found in the College Library, housed in the Johnian Collection.