To mark the 25th anniversary of the T. S. Eliot Prize, the T. S. Eliot Foundation has increased the winner’s prize money to £25,000. Judges Bill Herbert (Chair), James Lasdun and Helen Mort have chosen the shortlist from a record 154 poetry collections submitted by publishers:
Tara Bergin – The Tragic Death of Eleanor Marx (Carcanet)
Caroline Bird – In these Days of Prohibition (Carcanet)
Douglas Dunn – The Noise of a Fly (Faber & Faber)
Leontia Flynn – The Radio (Cape Poetry)
Roddy Lumsden – So Glad I’m Me (Bloodaxe)
Michael Symmons Roberts – Mancunia (Cape Poetry)
Robert Minhinnick – Diary of the Last Man (Carcanet)
James Sheard – The Abandoned Settlements (Cape Poetry)
Jacqueline Saphra – All My Mad Mothers (Nine Arches Press)
Ocean Vuong – Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Cape Poetry)
Chair Bill Herbert said:
‘This was a very strong year, and it was a privilege to read so many books that possessed as well as intrigued us; our shortlist explores grief, pleasure, place and history in a formidable variety of ways.’ READ