This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2013.
This autumn the Poetry Book Society will be organising a ten-venue national tour, funded by Arts Council England, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the T. S. Eliot Prize. At each venue three of the world-class poets who have been shortlisted in recent years will be reading their work, alongside a well-known local poet where possible.
The T. S. Eliot Prize has grown substantially from its beginnings and the annual Readings in the Royal Festival Hall are the largest poetry event of the year, now garnering audiences of up to 2,000 people, live news broadcasts and widespread coverage in the national press. The Prize, one of the world’s top poetry awards, will travel outside London for the first time.
The tour will visit a wide range of venues all over the country, stopping at Portsmouth, Winchester, Oldham, Halifax, Ludlow, Glasgow, Norwich, Liverpool, Durham and Sheffield. To learn more about who’s reading on this remarkable countrywide tour and to check dates and book tickets see below. We’ll be covering the tour on our Facebook and Twitter pages, so be sure to like and follow us for all the latest!
Tour dates
17 September, David Russell Theatre, Portsmouth Grammar School
George Szirtes, Penelope Shuttle, Tim Liardet & Maggie Sawkins
18 September, Discovery Centre, Winchester
David Harsent, Annie Freud, Daljit Nagra & Stephen Boyce
19 September, Oldham Library
Jen Hadfield, Jane Draycott, Maggie Sawkins & TBC
25 September, Square Chapel, Halifax
John Burnside, Christopher Reid, Fiona Sampson & Zaffar Kunial
27 September, Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Philip Gross, Gillian Clarke, Frances Leviston & Luke Kennard
30 September, Mitchell Library Main Hall, Glasgow
Don Paterson, Kathleen Jamie, Robert Crawford & William Letford
3 October, Millennium Library, Norwich, The Curve Auditorium
George Szirtes, Sean Borodale, Moniza Alvi & Helen Ivory
11 October, The Bluecoat, Liverpool
George Szirtes, Maura Dooley, Sam Willetts & Andrew McMillan
12 October, Durham Book Festival, Durham Town Hall
Philip Gross, Sinéad Morrissey & Deryn Rees-Jones
15 October, Long Gallery, Millennium Galleries, Off the Shelf Festival, Sheffield
Sean O’Brien, Paul Farley, Esther Morgan & Helen Mort
This article has been republished to provide a fuller picture of the T. S. Eliot Prize history. The Poetry Book Society ran the T. S. Eliot Prize until 2016, when the T. S. Eliot Foundation took over the Prize, the estate having supported it since its inception.
