The T. S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society are delighted to announce the cohort for the fourth instalment of the Young Critics Scheme. Ten young writers have been selected and will each review, in video form, one of the poetry collections shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2025.
Congratulations to this year’s Young Critics: (pictured above, top row, left to right) Anisha Jaya Minocha, Anna Jones, Aphra Le Levier-Bennett, Caleb Simon, Freya Gillard; and (bottom row, left to right) Ishita Uppadhayay, Jay Mitra, Lucas Sheridan, Molly Knox and Shannon Clinton-Copeland.
The Young Critics will take part in a series of series of expert-led workshops and will be invited to attend the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings in London. Their video reviews will be posted to T. S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society’s YouTube channels, offering fresh perspectives on the shortlisted books before the winner is announced in January 2026.
You can watch the video reviews created by last year’s cohort on our YouTube channel.
This year the scheme received over 100 applications from across the UK and Ireland. Michael Sims, Director of the T. S. Eliot Prize, said:
The Young Critics’ perspectives on the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlists have shown how fresh, insightful and adventurous video reviews can be. We are delighted to partner The Poetry Society and the Young Poets Network on the fourth year of the scheme.
Young Critics 2025
Anisha Jaya Minocha is based between Manchester and St Andrews. She co-edits SINK magazine for Northern creatives and facilitates a range of community-based workshops. She has been published by Propel, Resurgence & Ecologist magazine and Third Space. Her focus on the ecosystem of Indian philosophies and ecology can be found on @roots.foe.
Anna Jones is a twenty-one-year-old poet from Portsmouth. In 2023, she attended the Tower Poetry summer school at Christ Church, Oxford. Her poems have appeared in The Tonic Review, Body Odyssey (2024) and A Second Sky (2025).
Aphra Le Levier-Bennett is a writer and poet studying Caribbean and Black British literature. She has won poetry competitions run by Young Poets Network, had a short story published in Serendipity’s BlackInk magazine and one of her poems was shown during a Tate Late at Tate Britain.
Caleb Simon is a poet and maths student. He is a former Young Worcestershire Poet Laureate. He has been published in And Other Poems, Fruit Journal and Propel. Some of his coolest readings have been supporting Simon Armitage, Out-Spoken Live and the Three Choirs Festival.
Freya Gillard is a nineteen-year-old poet from Devon. She was a Top 15 Foyle Young Poet 2023 and is a recent graduate of the Tower Poetry summer school. She has received sustained mentoring in poetry through the Poetry London Apprenticeship Scheme and a fully-funded place on the upcoming Arvon Advanced Writing Programme.
Ishita Uppadhayay is a poet from India based in London. They are a Roundhouse Poetry Collective and Barbican Young Poets alum. Ishita is interested in writing on immigration, grief, addiction, and intimate relationships – everything you shouldn’t discuss at the dinner table. Find them on Instagram at @ishitaupp.
Jay Mitra is a British Indian punk poet, non-fiction writer, and educator currently based in London. They were selected as one of Apples and Snakes’ 40 Future Voices in poetry and were one of the winners of the Creative Future Writers’ Awards. Find out more about them on social media @punkofcolour.
Lucas Sheridan is a poet based in Scotland writing for page and stage. His poems focusing on queerness, health, and the climate have seen him become Loud Poets’ Edinburgh slam champion, a Young Poets Network challenge winner, and a 2024 Barbican Young Poet. He is Typewronger Books’ poet in residence.
Molly Knox is an MA Ethnomusicology graduate from Durham University. They are a queer Newcastle-based poet, arts researcher, theatre-maker and reviewer. Some of Molly’s writing can be found in Magma, Carmen et Error, and The Selkie. Her micro-chapbook Spindrift is published with The Braag.
Shannon Clinton-Copeland is an Irish-Jamaican poet living in Norwich, where she is working on her PhD in early modern Irish literature and colonialism at UEA. Her work has been published by The Rialto, Acumen, The Galway Review, Crannóg and others. She was runner-up in the Manchester Micropoetry Competition 2025.
