{"id":11486,"date":"2026-01-12T17:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/?p=11486"},"modified":"2025-12-18T13:58:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:58:32","slug":"ian-mcmillan-on-the-t-s-eliot-prize-shortlist-readings-walk-well-poets-and-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/ian-mcmillan-on-the-t-s-eliot-prize-shortlist-readings-walk-well-poets-and-remember\/","title":{"rendered":"Ian McMillan on the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings: ‘Walk well, poets, and remember’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ian McMillan at the T. S. Eliot Prize 2024 Shortlist Readings \u00a9 Pete Woodhead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We\u2019re finding it hard to wait until January for the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings at the Southbank\u2019s Royal Festival Hall<\/a><\/strong>\u2026 so we thought we\u2019d relive some of the previous events by asking those involved about their experiences.<\/p>\n

Ian McMillan has been Master of Ceremonies at the Readings since the 2010 Prize<\/strong>. His freewheeling humour puts both the audience and performers at ease, while his introductions show the care and close critical attention he gives to every one of the poets and their work.<\/p>\n

\n

Almost my favourite moment in the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings is the long walk each poet has to take from their seat on the front row at the Royal Festival Hall to the lectern in the middle of that vast stage. Some rush as though they\u2019re trying to catch a bus. Some walk as though they have just heard bad news. Occasionally there is a swagger, sometimes a breezy confidence. There has never yet been a trip, although the possibility of a trip hangs over the evening. That walk is like the journey from a first draft to a finished poem, from an early pamphlet to a Collected Poems<\/em>, and yes, maybe from a shortlist to a prize. Walk well, poets, and remember: the walk is only as long as you want it to be.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

See and hear the Eliot Prize experience for yourself by\u00a0booking now for the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings 2025<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0at 7pm on Sunday 18 January 2026. The event will be British Sign Language (BSL) interpreted and includes live captioning.\u00a0Tickets are available from the Southbank Centre\u2019s website<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0or by calling their box office on 020 3879 9555. You can also\u00a0join us from the comfort of your own home via the live stream<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re finding it hard to wait until January for the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings at the Southbank\u2019s Royal Festival Hall\u2026 so we thought we\u2019d relive some of the previous events by asking those involved about their experiences. Ian McMillan has been Master of Ceremonies at the Readings since the 2010 Prize. His freewheeling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11501,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11486","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=11486"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11534,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11486\/revisions\/11534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}