Ruth Padel Named First Female Oxford Professor of Poetry

"I should like to thank the university and the people who voted for me," Ms. Padel said. "I feel honored and humbled to be given this responsibility and shall try to carry it out as well as I can. My backers based their support for me on what they felt I could offer poetry and students. Now I shall do my best to fulfill their trust." Ms. Padel's selection follows close on the heels of Carol Ann Duffy's appointment as Britain's poet laureate; that post had been held by male writers for 341 years.