2010
T. S. Eliot Prize
Winner
Born in St Lucia, in the West Indies, in 1930, Derek Walcott studied at the University College of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. His collection of poems In a Green Night: Poems 1948-1960 (Jonathan Cape, 1962), celebrating the Caribbean, brought him to public attention. Subsequent works include Omeros (Faber & Faber, 1990), an epic poem in which he invokes the lives and voices of the people of the Caribbean through Greek myth and epic, which the WH Smith Literary Award; and White Egrets (Faber & Faber, 2010), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize 2010. He was also shortlisted for Eliot Prize for The Bounty in 1997 and Tiepolo's Hound in 2000. His Collected Poems 1948-1984 were published in 1986. He was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1988, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. He died in 2017. Author photo © Nigel Parry
Faber & Faber
Announcements
Introduction
The T. S. Eliot Prize is awarded annually to the writer of the best new poetry collection published in the UK and Ireland. Described by Sir Andrew Motion as ‘the prize poets most want to win’ and by The Independent as the ‘world’s top poetry award’, it is the most prestigious poetry prize in the world, and the only major poetry prize judged purely by established poets.
Announcements
Introduction
The T. S. Eliot Prize is awarded annually to the writer of the best new poetry collection published in the UK and Ireland. Described by Sir Andrew Motion as ‘the prize poets most want to win’ and by The Independent as the ‘world’s top poetry award’, it is the most prestigious poetry prize in the world, and the only major poetry prize judged purely by established poets.
Announcements
Shortlisted Works
Shortlisted Poets
Simon Armitage was born in West Yorkshire and is Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds. His collections...
Annie Freud was born in London in 1948. Her father is the painter, Lucian Freud. Her maternal grandfather...
John Haynes has had a long career in education, and was a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University...
Seamus Heaney was born on 13 April 1939 in County Derry, Northern Ireland. His first collection, Death of...
Pascale Petit was born in Paris and grew up in France and Wales. She trained as a sculptor...
Robin Robertson has published numerous poetry collections with Picador Poetry. They include: A Painted Field (1997), winner of...
Fiona Sampson MBE FRSL is a poet, literary biographer and writer about place. A former professional violinist, she...
Brian Turner served for seven years in the US Army. He was an infantry team leader for a...
Sam Willetts was born in 1962 and has spent most of his life in Oxford, where he read...
Judges
CHAIR
Anne Stevenson (1933-2020) was born in Cambridge, England, of American parents, and grew up in New England and...
Related News Stories
Between 2006 and 2015, the Poetry Book Society ran the T. S. Eliot School Shadowing Scheme (later renamed the Writing Competition) in collaboration with the English and Media Centre, offering GCSE and A Level students the chance to get involved with the judging of the T. S. Eliot Prize. Two...
This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2011. The Poetry Book Society is delighted to announce that Derek Walcott has won the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry 2010 with White Egrets, published by Faber & Faber. The...
This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2010. The Poetry Book Society is delighted to announce the shortlist for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry 2010. Judges Anne Stevenson (Chair), Bernardine Evaristo and Michael Symmons Roberts have chosen...
This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2010. The Poetry Book Society is delighted to announce the judges for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry 2010. Anne Stevenson will be Chair of the judges and the other...
