Ishion Hutchinson was born in Port Antonio, Jamaica. He is the author of three collections of poetry: Far District, winner of the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry 2011; House of Lords and Commons, which received the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry 2016; and School of Instructions, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2023 and winner of the Rilke Prize 2025. His book of essays, Fugitive Tilts, was published in 2025. His other awards include the Windham–Campbell Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize. Awarded Jamaica’s Gold Musgrave Medal for distinguished contributions to literature in 2021, Hutchinson is a co-founding member of the Global Black Initiative Collective at Cornell University where he is the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor in the Humanities and a trustee of the Griffin Poetry Prize. Photo © Marco Giugliarelli
Shortlisted Works
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We’re delighted to announce the T. S. Eliot Prize 2026 Shortlist – ten exciting collections of ‘linguistic disruption, personal reflection [and] humorous lyricism’. They are books, says Leontia Flynn, Chair of judges, that ‘share a determination to meet the challenges faced in difficult times with closer attention to language’. The...
Get your tickets now for our annual celebration of the best of British and Irish poetry, the prestigious T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 17 January 2027. You won’t want to miss performances from the shortlisted poets, as chosen by judges...
The T. S. Eliot Foundation is delighted to announce the judges for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2026. Leontia Flynn (Chair) will be joined on the panel by fellow poets Ishion Hutchinson and Daisy Lafarge. Leontia Flynn said: It’s an honour to chair this year’s T. S. Eliot Prize, alongside...
