L to r: Sasha Dugdale; Paul Muldoon (photo: Gary Doak); Denise Saul (photo: Karolina Heller)

As the T. S. Eliot Prize celebrates its 30th year, the T. S. Eliot Foundation is delighted to announce the judges for the 2023 Prize: the panel will be chaired by Paul Muldoon, alongside Sasha Dugdale and Denise Saul. 

The judges will be looking for the best new poetry collection written in English and published in 2023. The Prize is unique in that entrants are judged by their peers; the panel always consists of established poets.  

Paul Muldoon said: 

‘It’s an honour to chair the T. S. Eliot Prize as it celebrates 30 years of excellence in poetry. I look forward to reading numerous collections, discovering remarkable new voices and rediscovering familiar ones, as I work alongside my distinguished fellow judges Sasha Dugdale and Denise Saul.’

Michael Sims, Director of the T. S. Eliot Prize, said: 

‘We are delighted to be celebrating three decades of the T. S. Eliot Prize. Every year since its inauguration, the aim of the Prize has been to pick the best original book of poems in English, published within the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Over 30 remarkable years this laudable aim has not wavered.’

Paul Muldoon won the T. S. Eliot Prize 1994 for his collection The Annals of Chile (Faber and Faber) and was also shortlisted for Hay (1998), Moy Sand and Gravel (2002) and Horse Latitudes (2006); he was Chair of judges in 2000.

Sasha Dugdale’s most recent collection, Deformations (Carcanet), was shortlisted for the 2020 T. S. Eliot Prize. Denise Saul’s debut collection, The Room Between Us (Pavilion / Liverpool University Press), was shortlisted in 2022.

The call for submissions will go out in June, with the submission window closing at the end of July. 

The T. S. Eliot Prize 2023 Shortlist Readings will take place on Sunday 14 January 2024 at 7pm in the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall as part of its literature programme. This is the largest annual poetry event in the UK.

Tickets for the Readings in the Royal Festival Hall will be on sale later this year.

The winner of the 2023 Prize will be announced at the Award Ceremony on Monday 15 January 2024, where the winner and the shortlisted poets will be presented with their cheques. 

For full information on this year’s judges, visit our judges page on the T. S. Eliot Prize website.

The T. S. Eliot Prize was founded in 1993, and the inaugural winner was Ciaran Carson for his collection First Language (Gallery Press). A full list of all the winners can be found in the Previous Prizes section of the T. S. Eliot Prize website.

JEAN SPRACKLAND TO CHAIR 2022 T. S. ELIOT PRIZE JUDGING PANEL

The T. S. Eliot Foundation is delighted to announce the judges for the 2022 Prize. The panel will be chaired by Jean Sprackland, alongside Hannah Lowe and Roger Robinson

The 2022 judging panel will be looking for the best new poetry collection written in English and published in 2022. The prize is unique in that entrants are judged by their peers; the panel always consists of established poets.

Jean Sprackland said:

The T. S. Eliot Prize is a vibrant and vital part of our poetry culture, and it’s an honour to act as chair of judges this year. Of all the pleasures involved, there are two I’m particularly excited about. First, the time spent reading, and the view that will offer of the poetry being written now, in all its breadth and variety. And second, the joy of sitting down with Hannah and Roger – two poets I greatly admire – and sharing our discoveries together.

The call for submissions will go out in June, with the submission window closing at the end of July.

Following the retirement of Chris Holifield at the end of June, the T. S. Eliot Foundation is also pleased to announce that Mike Sims has been appointed as Director of the T. S. Eliot Prize as from 1 June.

Mike Sims said: “I’m delighted to be taking on the role of managing such a celebrated and successful award as the T. S. Eliot Prize. It has had an unerring knack of bringing the very best poetry collections to the fore since it was founded in 1993 by the Poetry Book Society, and now under the careful guardianship of the T. S. Eliot Foundation. It has been in excellent hands throughout the decades, thanks to Chris Holifield. I look forward to following her example in the years ahead.”

Chris Holifield said: “It has been a been a privilege and a pleasure to run the T. S. Eliot Prize for twenty years, fourteen of them for the Poetry Book Society and six under the aegis of the T. S. Eliot Foundation, and to play a part in its growth in influence and prestige.”

 The 2022 T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings will take place on Sunday 15 January 2023 at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall (tickets on sale later this year). The shortlist readings are the largest annual poetry event in the UK.

The winner of the 2022 Prize will be announced at the Award Ceremony on Monday 16 January 2023. The T. S. Eliot Prize continues to be the most valuable prize in British poetry – the winning poet will receive a cheque for £25,000 and the shortlisted poets will be presented with cheques for £1,500.

Last year’s winner was Joelle Taylor’s C+nto and Othered Poems and the judges were Glyn Maxwell (chair), Caroline Bird and Zaffar Kunial.

For more information on this year’s judges visit the T. S. Eliot Prize website at http://tseliot.com/prize/the-t-s-eliot-prize-2022/judges/.