{"id":11125,"date":"2025-09-30T09:12:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T08:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/?p=11125"},"modified":"2026-01-12T08:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T08:47:23","slug":"a-tireless-advocate-for-poetry-chris-holifield-1947-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/a-tireless-advocate-for-poetry-chris-holifield-1947-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"A tireless advocate for poetry: Chris Holifield (1947\u20132025)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chris Holifield. Photo \u00a9 Adrian Pope for the T. S. Eliot Prize<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We are deeply saddened to share the news that Chris Holifield, Director of the Poetry Book Society 2003\u201316 and Director of the T. S. Eliot Prize 2016\u201322, died on 3 September 2025.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Directors of the T. S. Eliot Foundation write: \u2018We would like to extend our deepest sympathy to Chris Holifield\u2019s family. Having worked with Chris for many years we want to acknowledge our appreciation, and also admiration for her, in the fullest way possible. She worked tirelessly to ensure the award deserved its reputation as \u201cthe prize most poets want to win\u201d. Chris was also courteous, resourceful, determined and fun. She cared deeply about the poets and most importantly she cared about their work and loved \u2013 each year \u2013 to bring the shortlisted collections to a wider audience. We know Mrs Eliot was very grateful and so are we.\u2019<\/p>\n

Having spent all of her career in publishing, Chris was an unwavering force for good in promoting literature and sharing it with readers. A former Deputy MD of Cassell, Editorial Director of BCA and Publishing Director of the Softback Preview Club, Chris founded WritersServices, a website providing editorial services for writers, in 2001. In 2007, concerned about the lack of support for children\u2019s poetry, she, Gaby Morgan and Jonathan Douglas set up the campaigning group Children\u2019s Poetry Summit.<\/p>\n

Appointed Director of the Poetry Book Society in 2003, Chris defended the organisation energetically after its funding was withdrawn by Arts Council England in 2011 and during the difficult years that followed. In 2016 the T. S. Eliot estate took over the Prize, having funded it since its inception, with Chris appointed as Director. The Poetry Book Society, its membership and book club were transferred to Inpress, the sales and marketing agency for independent publishers.<\/p>\n

As Chris told The Bookseller<\/em> at the time, \u2018The Society, founded by T. S. Eliot and once chaired by Philip Larkin, has done so much to promote poetry over the past 60 years, but the decision of the Arts Council to withdraw funding [\u2026] meant that its demise was inevitable [\u2026] I am grateful that the trustees of the T. S. Eliot estate have stepped in to ensure that the T. S. Eliot Prize [\u2026] will continue.\u2019<\/p>\n

With Chris at the helm this proved an exciting phase for the Prize. A new website and video archive were launched and the annual readings given by the shortlisted poets grew steadily into the largest poetry event in the UK. With the support of the T. S. Eliot estate, the prize money was also significantly increased.<\/p>\n

For Chris the Prize brought rewards both personal and far-reaching. For her an annual highlight was visiting Valerie Eliot \u2018in the rather grand Kensington flat she had shared with her husband to take copies of the shortlist, and thank her for supporting the Prize\u2019. Another memorable moment came in 2010, after the Shortlist Readings had moved to the Southbank Centre\u2019s Royal Festival Hall. \u2018Although we had achieved good audiences in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, moving to the RFH\u2019s vast auditorium was a major risk\u2019, Chris wrote. \u2018Though Seamus Heaney wasn\u2019t well, he had promised to \u201ccome [to the Readings] if he could\u201d and after Christmas phoned to say he would make it after all, thus contributing to the biggest audience we ever had and ensuring that the largest annual poetry event in the country would continue to achieve that status year after year\u2019.<\/p>\n

Chris retired as Director in May 2022, saying \u2018It has been a privilege and a pleasure to run the T. S. Eliot Prize for 20 years […] and to play a part in its growth in influence and prestige.\u2019 It had, she said in an article for the T. S. Eliot Prize website, \u2018been quite a ride\u2019. Despite her illness, she continued to run both WritersServices and the Children\u2019s Poetry Summit<\/a>, and to attend and support a range of poetry events and projects. She loved to travel and to spend time with her daughters and grandchildren, who will miss her dearly.<\/p>\n

Chris Holifield, 3 June 1947\u20133 September 2025<\/em><\/p>\n

Visit this page<\/a><\/strong> to read Chris’s article reflections on 30 years of the T. S. Eliot Prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are deeply saddened to share the news that Chris Holifield, Director of the Poetry Book Society 2003\u201316 and Director of the T. S. Eliot Prize 2016\u201322, died on 3 September 2025. The Directors of the T. S. Eliot Foundation write: \u2018We would like to extend our deepest sympathy to Chris Holifield\u2019s family. Having worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11125","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=11125"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11590,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11125\/revisions\/11590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}