Roger Robinson is a writer and performer who lives in Northampton. His poetry pamphlet Suckle (flipped eye, 2009) won the People’s Book Prize and the Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize. His first full poetry collection, The Butterfly Hotel (Peepal Tree Press, 2013), was shortlisted for the OCM Bocas Poetry Prize and his second, A Portable Paradise (also Peepal Tree Press, 2019), won the T. S. Eliot Prize 2019 and the Ondaatje Prize 2020. Home Is Not A Place, his collaboration with the acclaimed photographer Johny Pitts, was published by William Collins in 2022. Roger Robinson is an alumnus of The Complete Works and was a co-founder of both Spoke Lab and the international writing collective Malika’s Kitchen. He has received commissions from the National Trust, London Open House, BBC, National Portrait Gallery, V&A, INIVA, MK Gallery and Theatre Royal Stratford East. Roger is a sought-after internationally-acclaimed writer, educator and workshop leader in poetry and has toured extensively with the British Council.
Shortlisted Works
Related News Stories
In 2023 the T. S. Eliot Prize celebrated its 30th anniversary. We marked the occasion by looking back at the collections which have won ‘the Prize poets most want to win’ (Sir Andrew Motion). Judges John Burnside (Chair), Sarah Howe and Nick Makoha were unanimous in choosing Roger Robinson’s A...
The T. S. Eliot Foundation is delighted to announce that the winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize 2022 is Anthony Joseph for his collection Sonnets for Albert published by Bloomsbury Poetry.
Judges Jean Sprackland (Chair), Hannah Lowe and Roger Robinson have chosen the 2022 T. S. Eliot Prize shortlist from a record 201 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers. The eclectic list comprises seasoned poets, including one previous winner, and five debut collections. Victoria Adukwei Bulley – Quiet (Faber &...
The T. S. Eliot Foundation is delighted to announce the judges for the 2022 Prize. The panel will be chaired by Jean Sprackland, alongside Hannah Lowe and Roger Robinson The 2022 judging panel will be looking for the best new poetry collection written in English and published in 2022....
Roger Robinson has won the T. S. Eliot Prize 2019 with his searing collection A Portable Paradise, published by Peepal Tree Press. After months of reading and deliberation, judges John Burnside, Sarah Howe and Nick Makoha unanimously chose the winner from a Shortlist which comprised five men, four women and...
Times are dark, but the poets are singing. 2019 has been another strong year for poetry. Thematically, poetry is increasingly, necessarily political. Brecht asked in 1938: What kind of times are they, when A talk about trees is almost a crime Because it implies silence about so many horrors? We...
Judges John Burnside (Chair), Sarah Howe and Nick Makoha have chosen the T. S. Eliot Prize 2019 Shortlist from 158 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers. Featuring new voices and veteran poets, and covering an extraordinary range of themes, the Shortlist comprises five men, four women and one...
