Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born in Yorkshire. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published in 1957 by Faber & Faber and was followed by many volumes of poetry and prose for adults and children. He received the Whitbread Book of the Year for two consecutive years for his last published collections of poetry, Tales from Ovid and Birthday Letters. The latter won the T. S. Eliot Prize 1998. He was Poet Laureate from 1984, and in 1998 he was appointed to the Order of Merit.

This biography of Ted Hughes is taken from the Faber & Faber website.

1998
Shortlisted
WINNER
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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).   Ted Hughes’s Birthday Letters (Faber & Faber) proved a publishing sensation and the T. S....
This article on the early years of the T. S. Eliot Prize was written and added to the website in 2025.   The winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize 1998 was Ted Hughes for his collection Birthday Letters (Faber & Faber). The prize was awarded posthumously, Ted Hughes having...