Hugo Williams was born in 1942 and grew up in Sussex. He worked on the London Magazine from 1961 to 1970, and has since earned his living as a journalist and travel writer. His Collected Poems, which brings together work from eight books, including the 1999 T. S. Eliot Prize-winning Billy’s Rain, was published in 2002. His poetry collection Dear Room (2006) was shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Poetry Award; West End Final (2009), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2009; and I Knew the Bride (Faber & Faber) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2014. Hugo Williams has since published two further collections with Faber: Lines Off (2022) and Fast Music (2024). He was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2004.
Shortlisted Works
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