We’ve recently refreshed the T. S. Eliot Prize website, which now offers a fuller picture of all the shortlisted poets and books from across the Prize’s history. To add a new dimension to this living archive, we thought we’d highlight the incredible video and audio recordings we’ve gathered over the past four decades. Best of all, you can access these recordings for free, no matter where in the world you are.
Over a decade of T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings
Every year, the T. S. Eliot Prize invites ten of the best contemporary poets to perform at one of poetry’s most anticipated annual events. Since 2012, the Prize has shared recordings of these readings freely online. Now, more than one hundred recordings from some of the finest poets are available for the public to explore, all introduced by the inimitable Ian McMillan.
Visit the T. S. Eliot Prize YouTube channel to find videos from 2016 onwards, or the Poetry Book Society channel for 2012-2015.
Where to start?
- Jump back to 2012 and hear Sharon Olds read from Stag’s Leap, that year’s winner
- Relive Jay Bernard’s haunting, musical performance from Surge
- Hear Daljit Nagra performing his Ramayana with four ‘young poets’, including Richard Scott and Edward Doegar
- Catch up with the best recent books by watching the 2024 Shortlist Readings back in full
Peek behind the curtain
Since 2017, the T. S. Eliot Prize has also conducted interviews and recorded extra poems with each of the shortlistees, to enable keen readers and writers alike to gain an insight into the poets’ varied processes. You might start with…
- Caroline Bird on thinning the masks in In These Days of Prohibition
- Self-confessed ‘former jock’ Terrance Hayes on the practice of writing daily love poems
- Joelle Taylor on the history of C+nto and Othered Poems
Reviews by Young Critics
Since 2022, the T. S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society developed a new programme, supporting ten critics aged 18-25 to review the year’s shortlisted titles via video. So if you’re looking for a way to engage more deeply with these books, explore the critical archive on YouTube.
Where to begin?
- Eira Murphy uses stop-motion ingeniously to review the 2024 winner, Peter Gizzi’s Fierce Elegies
- Oliver Cooney explores the question ‘how are we supposed to live with this?’ in Sharon Olds’ Balladz
- Davina Bacon carefully unpicks the experiences of racism in Victoria Adukwei Bulley’s Quiet
Keep an eye on T. S. Eliot Prize social media for more Young Critics’ responses to this year’s Shortlist from December.
20th anniversary tour
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2013, the Poetry Book Society took thirty-six poets on the road, visiting ten venues up and down the country – and filmed it! They produced a short film of readings and interviews with poets like Robert Crawford, Christopher Reid, Zaffar Kunial, Fiona Sampson, Kei Miller, Sean O’Brien and the late, great John Burnside, to name just a few. Watch it back below. Bonus interviews and poems from former shortlistees Paul Farley and Helen Mort likewise celebrate 20 years of the Prize.
Looking back on thirty years of winners with Southbank Centre’s New Poets Collective
For the Prize’s 30th anniversary in 2023, we invited New Poets Collective alumni to read a poem from each of the thirty T. S. Eliot Prize-winning collections. Now this archive offers a quick dip into each of these accomplished books. Discover the full playlist here.
For starters, why not try…
- ‘Sonnet’ by Ciaran Carson, from First Language, winner of the inaugural T. S. Eliot Prize in 1993, read by Oluwaseun Olayiwola
- ‘My Ancestress and the Secret Ballot, 1848 and 1851’ by Les Murry, from his 1995 winner, Subhuman Redneck Poems, read by Colin Bramwell
- ‘Stern’, in memory of Ted Hughes, by Seamus Heaney from the 2006 Prize-winner District and Circle, read by Erica Hesketh
Tell us what you think!
We’d love to hear your responses to our digital archive. Share with your favourite videos from our archive and tag us on Instagram, Facebook, X or Bluesky, and let us know what you’d like to see more of in future.
What next?
We’re always looking for new ways to highlight more excellent contemporary poetry. Look out for new additions to our video and audio archive coming soon, including special recordings with past winners George Szirtes, Hugo Williams, Sarah Howe and more.
