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 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Whitbread Poetry Award, the Encore Award and the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year. In 2011, Black Cat Bone won both the T. S. Eliot and the Forward prizes. The Myth of the Twin (1994), The Asylum Dance (2000), All One Breath (2014) and The Light Trap (2002) – all Cape Poetry – were also shortlisted for the Eliot Prize. John was a distinguished Chair of judges for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2019, having previously judged the competition in 2001. He was a professor in the School of English at Saint Andrews University. His pamphlet Apostasy (Dare-Gale Press) was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Awards 2022. In 2023 he won the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime’s achievement in literature. His most recent collection, Ruin, Blossom (Cape Poetry), was published just a month before his death on 29 May 2024, aged 69, following a short illness. You can read a tribute to him here.
Author photo © Helmut Fricke
