The T.S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society are excited to share the second set of video reviews created as part of the Young Critics Scheme.

‘Their inventiveness and attention to poetic detail is always such a delight’, writes Cia Mangat of The Poetry Society, on the Children’s Poetry Summit blog: ‘In this year’s video reviews, you can see how they have drawn on a number of visual styles, including stop-motion animation, nature documentary, and watercolour painting, in their responses.’

In the latest additions Ahana Banerji discusses the skilful patterning and mirroring in Carl Phillips’s Scattered Snows to the North, while Elliot Ruff uncovers the intertextual references of Gboyega Odubanjo’s Adam. Priya Abularach elucidates the formal inventiveness in Karen McCarthy Woolf’s verse novel Top Doll, and Tallulah Howarth pulls at the many threads of Rachel Mann’s ‘tapestry of alternative visions’, Eleanor Among the Saints. Finally, Tusshara Nalakumar Srilatha finds an invitation to consider non-human perspectives in Katrina Porteous’s Rhizodont. These complete the set with the five video reviews published last week.

The Young Critics Scheme is a partnership project between the T. S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society that aims to develop the skills of emerging critics and to amplify the voices of young people in poetry. We invite ten writers aged between 18 and 25 to take part in criticism workshops and training and create short video reviews of each of the collections shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.

Now in its third year, the Scheme is going from strength to strength. Last year’s reviews were viewed almost 35,000 views in total and many of the Young Critics alumni have gone on to publish reviews in leading magazines. Applications for the scheme doubled this year and we’re delighted with the immediate response to the new cohort’s work. Discover more about the Young Critics Scheme here.