Ciaran Carson was born in 1948 in Belfast, where he lived. He worked in the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from 1975 to 1998, with responsibility for Traditional Music, and, more latterly, Literature. In October 2003 he was appointed Professor of Poetry and Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast. He is the author of fourteen collections of...
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In 2023 the T. S. Eliot Prize celebrated its 30th anniversary. We marked the occasion by looking back at the collections which have won ‘the Prize poets most want to win’ (Sir Andrew Motion). First Language by Ciaran Carson (Gallery Press) was awarded the first T. S. Eliot Prize in...
In 2023 the T. S. Eliot Prize celebrated its 30th anniversary. We marked the occasion by looking back at the collections which have won ‘the Prize poets most want to win’ (Sir Andrew Motion). With a title befitting a newly inaugurated award, Ciaran Carson won the first T. S. Eliot...
This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published in the Poetry Book Society’s PBS Bulletin in 1993. I’m not sure when the closing date for the first T. S. Eliot Prize was, but I do know that by the time it came more than a hundred...
This article on the early years of the T. S. Eliot Prize was written and added to the website in 2025. The winner of T. S. Eliot Prize 1993 was Ciaran Carson for his collection First Language, published by the Gallery Press. He was awarded £5,000, the generous gift...
