This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2014.
The Poetry Book Society is delighted to announce the judges and call for submissions for the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry 2014. Helen Dunmore will be Chair of the judging panel, alongside poets Sean Borodale and Fiona Sampson.
The judges will meet in October to decide on the ten-book Shortlist. The four Poetry Book Society Choices from 2014 are automatically shortlisted for the Prize. The Spring 2014 Choice was All One Breath by John Burnside (Cape Poetry); the Summer Choice is Letters Composed During a Lull in the Fighting by Kevin Powers (Sceptre); the Autumn Choice will be The Stairwell by Michael Longley (Cape Poetry), and the Winter Choice will be announced in August.
The T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings will take place on Sunday 11 January 2015 in Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. The Shortlist Readings are the largest annual poetry event in the UK.
The winner of the 2014 Prize will be announced at the award ceremony on Monday 12 January 2015, where the winning poet will be presented with a cheque for £15,000, donated by the T. S. Eliot Estate. This continues the tradition started by Mrs Valerie Eliot, who gave the prize money from the inception of the Prize. The shortlisted poets will each receive £1,000.
The T. S. Eliot Prize Reading Groups scheme will enable reading groups and individual readers to read and discuss the Shortlist. Specially commissioned reading group notes, together with three poems from each shortlisted collection, will be made available to download from the Poetry Book Society website.
Last year’s winner was Sinéad Morrissey for her collection Parallax (Carcanet Press). The judges were Ian Duhig (Chair), Imtiaz Dharker and Vicki Feaver.
The Prize is very generously supported by the T. S. Eliot Estate, which has increased its support this year to become sole sponsor of the Prize.
In 2013 the Poetry Book Society completed a nationwide T. S. Eliot Prize 20th Anniversary Tour, taking shortlisted and prize-winning poets to ten venues across the country.
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.
