This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2005.

The Poetry Book Society is pleased to announce the Shortlist for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2005, to be awarded to the writer of the best new collection of poetry published in 2005.

Now in its thirteenth year, the T. S. Eliot Prize is ‘poetry’s most coveted award’ (Jane Wheatley, The Times).

Judges David Constantine (Chair), Kate Clanchy and Jane Draycott chose the following ten collections:

Polly Clark – Take Me with You (Bloodaxe Books)

Carol Ann Duffy – Rapture (Picador Poetry)

Helen Farish – Intimates (Cape Poetry)

David Harsent – Legion (Faber & Faber)

Sinéad Morrissey – The State of the Prisons (Carcanet Press)

Alice Oswald – Woods etc. (Faber & Faber)

Pascale Petit – The Huntress (Seren)

Sheenagh Pugh – The Movement of Bodies (Seren)

John Stammers – Stolen Love Behaviour (Picador Poetry)

Gerard Woodward – We Were Pedestrians (Chatto & Windus)

Each of these collections are available at the usual discount from the Poetry Book Society.

The judges will make their final decision on Monday 16 January 2006, when the prize of £10,000 will be presented by Mrs Valerie Eliot at an award ceremony in London.

The T. S. Eliot Prize is sponsored by the broadcaster

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.