{"id":11027,"date":"2025-08-15T10:34:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T09:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/?p=11027"},"modified":"2025-09-12T17:48:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T16:48:45","slug":"seriously-its-a-gift-celebrating-the-young-critics-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/seriously-its-a-gift-celebrating-the-young-critics-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Seriously, it’s a\u00a0gift’: celebrating the Young Critics Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Young Critics 2022 cohort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the past few years, you might have spotted a new kind of video appearing on the T. S. Eliot Prize YouTube channel<\/a> and social media feeds<\/a>. Appearing in December, these videos offer new perspectives on the ten titles shortlisted for that year\u2019s T. S. Eliot Prize, voiced passionately and critically by a group of 18\u201325-year-olds.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The videos are the creations of emerging reviewers mentored through the Young Critics Scheme<\/strong>, a collaborative project developed by the T. S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society\u2019s Young Poets Network<\/a>. Since 2022, the scheme has fostered a new generation of literature reviewers and encouraged wider and deeper engagement with the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist.<\/p>\n

Every year, ten young reviewers in the UK and Ireland take part in four online masterclasses on reviewing poetry and making videos. They receive copies of all ten shortlisted collections, two tickets to the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings at the Southbank Centre, London, and support from their peers and the organisations involved.<\/p>\n

The programme stands on the shoulders of the T. S. Eliot Prize\u2019s Shadowing Scheme<\/a>, which was run by the Prize (then under the auspices of the Poetry Book Society<\/a>) and the English and Media Centre<\/a>. That programme invited GCSE and A Level students to submit written reviews and poems in response to the Shortlist, and ran between 2006 and 2015. The Young Critics Scheme goes one step further, mentoring the young writers and offering a community and network.<\/p>\n

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The Young Critics 2023 cohort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What has the Young Critics Scheme achieved?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So far, thirty Young Critics have taken part in the scheme, producing an outstanding array of video reviews. You\u2019ll find classic straight-to-video vlog-style videos \u2013 like Priyanka Moorjani\u2019s review of Raymond Antrobus\u2019s Signs, Music<\/em><\/a>, which offers a reading of the book as\u00a0a Homeric epic of parenthood with charm and wit. Other critics, like Eira Murphy reviewing Fierce Elegy <\/em>by Peter Gizzi<\/a>, have created meditative short films that evoke their chosen collection\u2019s mood, with their review as the soundtrack. Still other reviewers combine both styles, like Oliver Cooney\u2019s review of Sharon Olds\u2019 Balladz<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018The scheme has had a profound effect on me \u2013 it gave me the confidence and sense of community among like-minded young writers that bolstered me to reconnect with my writing practice and to submit and edit work,\u2019 writes 2023 Young Critic Natalie Perman. Since taking part in the scheme, more than half of the first twenty Young Critics have reviewed for The Poetry Review, Poetry London, Oxford Poetry, Magma, The Skinny<\/em>, Interpret <\/em>and many other publications. Young Critic Gabrielle Tse writes, \u2018The scheme has given me the confidence to continue pursuing literature as a career’, and indeed many of the alumni have taken part in the Forward Prize Young Poets Summit, judged the Poetry Foundation Poetry<\/em> Magazine Prizes, used their new video skills as part of their PhDs and jobs, and more.<\/p>\n

The reviews have reached a wide audience and have been favourably received by the poetry community: altogether, the videos have reached over 110,000 people across the T. S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society YouTube, Instagram and TikTok channels. 2024\u2019s reviews were also turned into mini podcasts by The Poetry Society and played over 2,000 times \u2013 look out for more this year.<\/p>\n

The reviewers have also brought fresh critical thinking to our shortlisted poets’ collections. Abigail Parry (shortlisted in 2023 for I Think We\u2019re Alone Now<\/em>) wrote of Gabrielle Tse\u2019s review that \u2018it\u2019s straight-up one of the most acute and careful responses anyone\u2019s offered to something I\u2019ve written.\u00a0And some of the best visual\u00a0language I’ve seen in a\u00a0video essay.\u00a0Seriously, it’s a\u00a0gift<\/em>.\u2019 Hannah Copley (shortlisted in 2024 for Lapwing<\/em>) said, \u2018my mum says [Young Critic Joe Wright] talks about my own book far better than I do\u2019, while Carl Phillips (shortlisted in 2024 for Scattered Snows, to the North<\/em>) said, \u2018I think the best criticism always allows me to see my own work in a new way, and that is exactly what Ahana [Banerji] has achieved here.\u2019<\/p>\n

Look out for details of the Young Critics Scheme 2025 cohort, announced online in September.<\/p>\n

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The Young Critics 2024 cohort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alumni<\/strong><\/p>\n

2022: Ruth Awolola, Davina Bacon, Aliyah Begum, Noah Jacob, Lily McDermott, Holly Moberley, Malachi Mukisa, SZ Shao and Eric Yip<\/a><\/p>\n

See our news post about the 2022 Young Critics cohort here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2023: Evelyn Byrne, Daniel Clark, Oliver Cooney, Godelieve de Bree, Chloe Elliott, Leo Kang, Urussa Malik, Cal O\u2019Reilly, Natalie Perman and Gabrielle Tse<\/a><\/p>\n

See our news post announcing the 2023 Young Critics cohort here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

2024: Priya Abularach, Ahana Banerji, Orla Davey, Tallulah Howarth,\u00a0Sylvie Jane Lewis, Priyanka Moorjani, Eira Murphy, Tusshara Nalakumar Srilatha, Elliot Ruff and Joe Wright<\/a><\/p>\n

See our news post announcing the 2024 Young Critics cohort here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the past few years, you might have spotted a new kind of video appearing on the T. S. Eliot Prize YouTube channel and social media feeds. Appearing in December, these videos offer new perspectives on the ten titles shortlisted for that year\u2019s T. S. Eliot Prize, voiced passionately and critically by a group of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,36],"tags":[52,65],"class_list":["post-11027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-news","tag-feat","tag-young-critics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11027"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11050,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11027\/revisions\/11050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}