John Burnside announced as Chair of the T. S. Eliot Prize 2019 judging panel

The T. S. Eliot Foundation is delighted to announce the judges for the 2019 Prize. The panel will be chaired by John Burnside, alongside Sarah Howe and Nick Makoha. The 2019 judging panel will be looking for the best new poetry collection written in English and published in 2019. The prize is unique in that entrants are judged by their peers; the panel always consists of established poets. John Burnside said:

I take it as a great honour and an even greater responsibility to act as chair for this year’s T. S. Eliot Prize and I very much look forward to working with my fellow judges, Sarah Howe and Nick Makoha, on what promises to be a rich vintage of profoundly musical, vitally engaged and inventive poetry.

The call for submissions will go out in June, with the submission window closing in early August.

The T. S. Eliot Prize 2019 Shortlist Readings will take place on Sunday 12 January 2020 at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. The Shortlist Readings are the largest annual poetry event in the UK. The winner of the 2019 Prize will be announced at the Award Ceremony on Monday 13 January 2020. The T. S. Eliot Prize is the most valuable prize in British poetry – the winning poet will receive a cheque for £25,000 and the shortlisted poets will be presented with cheques for £1,500.

Last year’s winner was Hannah Sullivan’s Three Poems and the judges were Sinéad Morrisssey (Chair), Daljit Nagra and Clare Pollard.

Read here for more information on this year’s Judges.

Related Poets

Dr. Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet based in London. The New Carthaginians follows his debut collection Kingdom of Gravity (2017), which was shortlisted for...
Sarah Howe is a British poet, academic and editor. Born in Hong Kong to an English father and Chinese mother, she moved to England as...
John Burnside was an internationally celebrated poet, novelist, memoirist, writer of short stories and academic works, and the recipient of many major awards, including the...

Related News Stories

Nick Makoha, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2025 with his collection The New Carthaginians (Penguin Press), is the featured poet in this week’s Eliot Prize newsletter. The newsletter tells you about the wide range of content we have just published to help you get to know Nick and...
Natalie Shapero, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2025 with her collection Stay Dead (Out-Spoken Press), is the featured poet in this week’s Eliot Prize newsletter. The newsletter tells you about the wide range of content we have just published to help you get to know Natalie and her...
Isabelle Baafi, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2025 with her collection Chaotic Good (Faber & Faber), is the featured poet in this week’s Eliot Prize newsletter. The newsletter tells you about the wide range of content we have just published to help you get to know Isabelle and...
Paul Farley, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2025 with his collection When It Rained for a Million Years (Picador Poetry), is the featured poet in this week’s Eliot Prize newsletter. The newsletter tells you about the wide range of content we have just published to help you get...