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 6 collections from the record 123 books submitted by publishers, which join the 4 Poetry Book Society Choices to make up the 10 collections on the shortlist:
Seeing Stars – Simon Armitage (Faber & Faber)
The Mirabelles – Annie Freud (Picador Poetry)
You – John Haynes (Seren)
Human Chain – Seamus Heaney (Faber & Faber)
What the Water Gave Me – Pascale Petit (Seren)
The Wrecking Light – Robin Robertson (Picador Poetry)
Rough Music – Fiona Sampson (Carcanet Press)
Phantom Noise Brian Turner (Bloodaxe Books)
White Egrets – Derek Walcott (Faber & Faber)
New Light for the Old Dark – Sam Willetts (Cape Poetry)
Anne Stevenson said: ‘The judges have found this an exceptional year for poetry, with a record number of entries, and have agreed on a strong shortlist which is unusually eclectic in form and theme.’
The T. S. Eliot Award Ceremony
The winner will be announced on the evening of Monday 24 January 2011 at the T. S. Eliot Prize award ceremony, which will be held in the Courtyard at the Wallace Collection. Mrs Valerie Eliot will present the winner with a cheque for £15,000 and each of the shortlisted poets will receive £1,000 in recognition of their achievement.
The T. S. Eliot Prize Readings
On the eve of the judges’ decision all ten shortlisted poets will be invited to take part in the year’s most thrilling poetry reading. On Sunday 23 January 2011 the T. S. Eliot Prize Readings will be staged at the Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall, after a complete sell-out last year in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The Readings are a unique opportunity to hear the best contemporary poets reading their own work.
New T. S. Eliot Prize reading groups
The Poetry Book Society has also just launched a new scheme to enable reading groups and individual readers to read the shortlist. Specially commissioned reading group notes, together with three poems from each shortlisted collection, are available in pdf form to download, together with discounts on individual titles and a reading group discount.
T. S. Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme
This offers A Level students the opportunity to ‘shadow’ the judges and also to take part in a competition for the best student rationale for their choice of winner. Find out more here.
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.
