{"id":11075,"date":"2025-09-15T08:45:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T07:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/?p=11075"},"modified":"2025-09-15T09:26:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T08:26:16","slug":"a-warm-welcome-to-the-young-critics-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/a-warm-welcome-to-the-young-critics-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"A warm welcome to the Young Critics 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

The T. S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society are delighted to announce the cohort for the fourth instalment of the Young Critics Scheme. <\/strong>Ten young writers have been selected and will each review, in video form, one of the poetry collections shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2025.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to this year\u2019s Young Critics: (pictured above, top row, left to right) Anisha Jaya Minocha, Anna Jones, Aphra Le Levier-Bennett, Caleb Simon, Freya Gillard; and (bottom row, left to right) Ishita Uppadhayay, Jay Mitra, Lucas Sheridan, Molly Knox and Shannon Clinton-Copeland.<\/p>\n

The Young Critics will take part in a series of series of expert-led workshops and will be invited to attend the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings in London. Their video reviews will be posted to T. S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society\u2019s YouTube channels, offering fresh perspectives on the shortlisted books before the winner is announced in January 2026.<\/p>\n

You can watch the video reviews<\/strong> created by last year\u2019s cohort on our YouTube channel.<\/a><\/p>\n

This year the scheme received over 100 applications from across the UK and Ireland. Michael Sims, Director of the T. S. Eliot Prize, said:<\/p>\n

\n

The Young Critics\u2019 perspectives on the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlists have shown how fresh, insightful and adventurous video reviews can be. We are delighted to partner The Poetry Society and the Young Poets Network on the fourth year of the scheme.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Young Critics 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anisha Jaya Minocha<\/strong>\u00a0is based between Manchester and St Andrews. She co-edits SINK<\/em> magazine for Northern creatives and facilitates a range of community-based workshops. She has been published by Propel<\/em>, Resurgence & Ecologist<\/em> magazine and Third Space<\/em>. Her focus on the ecosystem of Indian philosophies and ecology can be found on @roots.foe.<\/p>\n

Anna Jones<\/strong>\u00a0is a twenty-one-year-old poet from Portsmouth. In 2023, she attended the Tower Poetry summer school at Christ Church, Oxford. Her poems have appeared in\u00a0The Tonic Review<\/em>,\u00a0Body Odyssey<\/em>\u00a0(2024) and\u00a0A Second Sky<\/em>\u00a0(2025).<\/p>\n

Aphra Le Levier-Bennett<\/strong>\u00a0is a writer and poet studying Caribbean and Black British literature. She has won poetry competitions run by Young Poets Network, had a short story published in Serendipity\u2019s\u00a0BlackInk<\/em>\u00a0magazine and one of her poems was shown during a Tate Late at Tate Britain.<\/p>\n

Caleb Simon<\/strong>\u00a0is a poet and maths student. He is a former Young Worcestershire Poet Laureate. He has been published in\u00a0And Other Poems<\/em>,\u00a0Fruit Journal<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Propel<\/em>. Some of his coolest readings have been supporting Simon Armitage, Out-Spoken Live and the Three Choirs Festival.<\/p>\n

Freya Gillard<\/strong>\u00a0is a nineteen-year-old poet from Devon. She was a Top 15 Foyle Young Poet 2023 and is a recent graduate of the Tower Poetry summer school. She has received sustained mentoring in poetry through the Poetry London Apprenticeship Scheme and a fully-funded place on the upcoming Arvon Advanced Writing Programme.<\/p>\n

Ishita Uppadhayay<\/strong>\u00a0is a poet from India based in London. They are a Roundhouse Poetry Collective and Barbican Young Poets alum. Ishita is interested in writing on immigration, grief, addiction, and intimate relationships \u2013 everything you shouldn\u2019t discuss at the dinner table. Find them on Instagram at @ishitaupp.<\/p>\n

Jay Mitra<\/strong>\u00a0is a British Indian punk poet, non-fiction writer, and educator currently based in London. They were selected as one of Apples and Snakes\u2019 40 Future Voices in poetry and were one of the winners of the Creative Future Writers\u2019 Awards. Find out more about them on social media @punkofcolour.<\/p>\n

Lucas Sheridan<\/strong>\u00a0is a poet based in Scotland writing for page and stage. His poems focusing on queerness, health, and the climate have seen him become Loud Poets\u2019 Edinburgh slam champion, a Young Poets Network challenge winner, and a 2024 Barbican Young Poet. He is Typewronger Books\u2019 poet in residence.<\/p>\n

Molly Knox<\/strong>\u00a0is an MA Ethnomusicology graduate from Durham University. They are a queer Newcastle-based poet, arts researcher, theatre-maker and reviewer. Some of Molly’s writing can be found in\u00a0Magma, Carmen et Error<\/em>, and\u00a0The Selkie<\/em>. Her micro-chapbook\u00a0Spindrift<\/em>\u00a0is published with The Braag.<\/p>\n

Shannon Clinton-Copeland<\/strong>\u00a0is an Irish-Jamaican poet living in Norwich, where she is working on her PhD in early modern Irish literature and colonialism at UEA. Her work has been published by The Rialto<\/em>, Acumen<\/em>, The Galway Review<\/em>, Crann\u00f3g<\/em> and others. She was runner-up in the Manchester Micropoetry Competition 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The T. S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society are delighted to announce the cohort for the fourth instalment of the Young Critics Scheme. Ten young writers have been selected and will each review, in video form, one of the poetry collections shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2025. Congratulations to this year\u2019s Young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,1],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-11075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-feat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11075","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=11075"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11084,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11075\/revisions\/11084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}