The T. S. Eliot Foundation is delighted to announce the judges for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2025. Chair Michael Hofmann will be joined on the panel by Patience Agbabi and Niall Campbell. 

Michael Hofmann said:

I’m delighted to be asked to judge the T. S. Eliot Prize and look forward to getting across the literary output of another troubled year with my esteemed fellows, Patience Agbabi and Niall Campbell.

The T. S. Eliot Prize is unique among poetry prizes as it is judged purely by a panel of established poets. It is awarded annually to the author of the best new poetry collection written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. Last year’s winner was Peter Gizzi for his collection Fierce Elegy (Penguin Poetry), as chosen by judges Mimi Khalvati (Chair), Anthony Joseph and Hannah Sullivan.

The call for submissions will go out in June, with the submission window closing at the end of July; full details will be available on the submissions webpage shortly. The judges will meet in October to decide on the ten shortlisted titles.

The T. S. Eliot Prize 2025 Shortlist Readings will take place on Sunday 18 January 2026 at 7pm in the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall as part of its literature programme. This is the largest annual poetry event in the UK. Tickets for the Readings will be on sale later this year.

The winner of the 2025 Prize will be announced at the Award Ceremony at the Wallace Collection, London, on Monday 19 January 2026, where the winner will be presented with a cheque for £25,000. The shortlisted poets will each receive £1,500.

For full information on this year’s judges, visit the 2025 Prize page on the T. S. Eliot Prize website.

The T. S. Eliot Prize was inaugurated by the Poetry Book Society in 1993 to mark the Poetry Book Society’s fortieth birthday, and to honour its founding poet. The T. S. Eliot estate has provided the prize money since the Prize’s inception, and the T. S. Eliot Foundation took over the running of the Prize in 2016, following Inpress Books’ acquisition of the PBS. The winner of the first T. S. Eliot Prize was Ciaran Carson for his collection First Language (Gallery Press). A full list of all the winners can be found in the Past Years section of the T. S. Eliot Prize website.