This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2013.
The Poetry Book Society is delighted to announce a wonderfully diverse Shortlist for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry 2013.
Judges Ian Duhig (Chair), Imtiaz Dharker and Vicki Feaver have chosen the Shortlist from 113 books submitted by publishers:
Dannie Abse – Speak, Old Parrot (Hutchinson)
Moniza Alvi – At the Time of Partition (Bloodaxe Books)
Anne Carson – Red Doc > (Cape Poetry)
Sinéad Morrissey – Parallax (Carcanet Press)
Helen Mort – Division Street (Chatto & Windus)
Daljit Nagra – Ramayana: A Retelling (Faber & Faber)
Maurice Riordan – The Water Stealer (Faber & Faber)
Robin Robertson – Hill of Doors (Picador Poetry)
Michael Symmons Roberts – Drysalter (Cape Poetry)
George Szirtes – Bad Machine (Bloodaxe Books)
Chair Ian Duhig said:
It’s an honour to chair the T. S. Eliot Prize, a pleasure to work with my distinguished fellow judges Imtiaz Dharker and Vicki Feaver, and a nightmare to shortlist from so many fantastic books. Congratulations to those poets who made it and those who didn’t, so much of whose work I read with enormous delight and envy.
The T. S. Eliot Prize Readings
The T. S. Eliot Prize Readings will take place at 7pm on Sunday 12 January 2014 at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. The fabulous Readings for the 2012 Prize attracted 250 more people than the previous year and the Readings continue to be the largest annual poetry event in the UK.
The T. S. Eliot Award Ceremony
The winner of the 2013 Prize will be announced at the Award Ceremony on Monday 13 January 2014, when the winner will be presented with a cheque for £15,000, donated by the T. S. Eliot Trustees, following on in the tradition of Mrs Valerie Eliot, who generously gave the prize money from the inception of the Prize. The shortlisted poets will each receive £1,000.
The T. S. Eliot Prize Reading Groups scheme will enable reading groups and individual readers to engage with the shortlist. Specially commissioned reading group notes, together with three poems from each shortlisted collection, will be made available to download from the Poetry Book Society website. This year, reading groups can enter a new competition to win tickets for the Readings, a visit from one of the shortlisted poets or a complete set of the shortlisted books.
The T. S. Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme, run by the Poetry Book Society in partnership with the English and Media Centre’s emagazine, will offer A Level students a chance to engage with the latest new poetry by shadowing the judges and taking part in a writing competition. Find out more.
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.
