Philip Gross was born in Cornwall, the son of an Estonian wartime refugee. He has lived in Plymouth, Bristol and South Wales, where he was Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University (USW). His twenty-eighth book of poetry, The Shores of Vaikus, was published by Bloodaxe in 2024. His previous collection, The Thirteenth Angel (2022), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2022. His eleven previous books for Bloodaxe include: Between the Islands (2020); A Bright Acoustic (2017); Love Songs of Carbon (2015), winner of the Roland Mathias Poetry Award and a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; Deep Field (2011), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; The Water Table (2009), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize 2009; and Changes of Address: Poems 1980-1998 (2001). He regularly collaborates with other artists, photographers and writers; he also writes poetry for young people – The All-Nite Café won the Signal Award 1994, and Off Road to Everywhere won the CLPE Award 2011. He received a Cholmondeley Award in 2017. Photo © Stephen Morris
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). Philip Gross won the T. S. Eliot Prize 2009 for The Water Table (Bloodaxe Books), chosen...
Judges Jean Sprackland (Chair), Hannah Lowe and Roger Robinson have chosen the 2022 T. S. Eliot Prize shortlist from a record 201 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers. The eclectic list comprises seasoned poets, including one previous winner, and five debut collections. Victoria Adukwei Bulley – Quiet (Faber &...
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...
This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2010. Congratulations to Philip Gross for winning the T. S. Eliot Prize 2009 with The Water Table (Bloodaxe Books). The other poets on the shortlist were: The Sun-fish – Eiléan Ní Chuilleánain...
This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2009. The Poetry Book Society is delighted to announce the Shortlist for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry 2009. Judges Simon Armitage (Chair), Colette Bryce and Penelope Shuttle have chosen the...
