This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2008.
Congratulations to Sean O’Brien for winning the T. S. Eliot Prize 2007 for The Drowned Book (Picador Poetry).
This other poets on the shortlist were:
Ian Duhig – The Speed of Dark (Picador Poetry)
Alan Gillis – Hawks and Doves (Gallery Press)
Sophie Hannah – Pessimism for Beginners (Carcanet Press)
Mimi Khalvati – The Meanest Flower (Carcanet Press)
Frances Leviston – Public Dream (Picador Poetry)
Sarah Maguire – The Pomegranates of Kandahar (Chatto & Windus)
Edwin Morgan – A Book of Lives (Carcanet Press)
Fiona Sampson – Common Prayer (Carcanet Press)
Matthew Sweeney – Black Moon (Cape Poetry)
The winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize 2007 was announced at the Award Ceremony at the Wallace Collection, London, on Monday 14 January 2008.
On Sunday 13 January, the ten poets read from their collections at a special event at the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre.
The T. S. Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme, which allows students to shadow the judging process and to read and comment on excerpts from all the shortlisted collections, was won by Holly Stevenson of Dame Alice Harpur School, Beford.
The T. S. Eliot Prize is now the biggest cash award in UK poetry, increased from £10,000 to £15,000. In a move which was widely welcomed, each of the ten shortlisted poets also received £1,000. The £15,000 prize money was kindly donated by Eliot’s widow, Mrs Valerie Eliot.
This article has been republished to provide a fuller picture of the T. S. Eliot Prize history. The Poetry Book Society ran the T. S. Eliot Prize until 2016, when the T. S. Eliot Foundation took over the Prize, the estate having supported it since its inception.
