2017 T. S. Eliot Prize judges announced

2017 T.S. Eliot PrizeThe T. S. Eliot Prize has announced the judges for the 2017 Prize for the best new poetry collection published in the year. W. N. Herbert will be Chair of the judging panel, alongside poets James Lasdun and Helen Mort.

The call for submissions has now gone out, with the submission window closing on 4 August. READ

The 1858 Charter Lecture: Professor Ronald Schuchard and Jeremy Irons

On 16 May 2017 the University of London is hosting a special event, to mark the centenary of T. S. Eliot’s association with the university.

Professor Ronald Schuchard will deliver the inaugural 1858 Charter Lecture, entitled ‘Eliot in the Wartime Classroom 1916–1919’, which will focus on Eliot’s early writing, much of which was shaped during his time as an extension tutor for the University of London. READ

Introducing Mrs Eliot…

In the spring of 1958 the (relatively) new Mr and Mrs Eliot travelled to America for a month so that T. S. Eliot could introduce his new wife, Valerie, to his family. They sailed from Southampton to New York aboard the Media before flying to Texas for lecture engagements and then on to Cambridge, via New York, to spend time with various members of the Eliot family. READ

T. S. Eliot at Lloyds Bank

One hundred years ago this month, on 19 March 1917, T. S. Eliot started working as a clerk in the Colonial & Foreign Department at Lloyds Bank. Eliot enjoyed eight years with the bank until the autumn of 1925 when he left to begin a new career as editor and director at the newly established publishing house of Faber & Gwyer. READ

T. S. Eliot’s Crossword Puzzles

 

‘The appeal to my vanity is as great as that of finding a reference to myself and my works in The Times crossword puzzle’ – T. S. Eliot in a letter to writer and publisher Sydney Castle Roberts, November 1958. READ

T. S. Eliot Memorial Lecture 2017

The 2017 T. S. Eliot Memorial Lecture will be given by Professor Marina Warner on Wednesday 15th March, titled as follows:

‘What place is this, what land, what quarter of the globe?’: The compass of story in dislocated times.

Against the background of the current refugee crisis, Professor Warner will look at migrating stories, from myths of Troy to Eliot’s uses of Christian legend, tracing the compass bearings they offer. READ

From the Archive

The T. S. Eliot Estate continues to look after Valerie Eliot’s private collection of archives relating to T. S. Eliot. The collection includes T. S. Eliot’s personal and business correspondence, typescript drafts of lectures, speeches and plays, photographs, audio recordings, press cuttings, and scrapbooks Eliot created during his life with Valerie. READ

T. S. Eliot and Decadence

A celebration of T. S. Eliot and the influence of France on his life and work

 

T.S. Eliot and Decadence
 

on Tues 21st February 2017, 7.30pm

in Hall 1 at Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG

Curated by the Rimbaud and Verlaine Foundation and generously sponsored by the T.
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Chair of the Judges Ruth Padel’s speech

This was the speech given by Ruth Padel at the Award Ceremony for the 2016 T. S. Eliot Prize at the Wallace Collection in London on 16 January 2017:

Thank you, first of all, from the whole poetry community to Chris Holifield who has built up this prize-judged-only-by-poets over 14 years and now has helped it continue in a new incarnation.

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