{"id":11509,"date":"2025-12-08T11:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/?p=11509"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:37:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:37:53","slug":"young-critics-2025-review-the-shortlist-with-fresh-insights-and-visual-flair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/young-critics-2025-review-the-shortlist-with-fresh-insights-and-visual-flair\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Critics 2025: video reviews with fresh insights and visual flair"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The T.S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society are delighted to publish the video reviews created by participants in this year\u2019s Young Critics Scheme.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michael Sims, Director of the T. S. Eliot Prize welcomed \u2018another brilliant year for the Young Critics Scheme’. He said, ‘The 2025 cohort\u2019s video reviews of the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist are packed with fresh insights and visual flair. We\u2019re delighted by the way the Scheme continues to expand the readership of the shortlisted collections and excite more interest in the Prize.<\/span>\u2019<\/p>\n

Following a series of criticism workshops led by The Poetry Society, this year\u2019s Young Critics \u2013 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 \u00a0\u2013 have produced engaging and insightful video reviews of the\u202f2025 T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist.<\/a><\/p>\n

All ten video reviews are now available to watch on YouTube<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on both the T. S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society channels<\/strong>. Be sure to view the video reviews before you take your seats at the T. S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings<\/strong><\/a> at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 18 January 2026<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Anisha Jaya Minocha<\/strong><\/a> carefully guides the viewer through Gillian Allnutt\u2019s Lode, <\/em>while Jay Mitra<\/strong><\/a> asks whether a poetry collection can make someone leave a toxic marriage in their review of Isabelle Baafi\u2019s Chaotic Good<\/em>. Aphra Le Levier-Bennett<\/strong> <\/a>plays close attention to the \u2018long song\u2019 of violence in Catherine-Esther Cowie\u2019s Heirloom<\/em>. Molly Knox<\/strong><\/a> interrogate the role of the poet in Paul Farley\u2019s When It Rained for a Million Years<\/em> while\u00a0Freya Gillard<\/strong><\/a> ponders similar self-riddling in Vona Groarke\u2019s Infinity Pool<\/em>. Ishita Uppadhayay<\/strong><\/a> considers the mapping out of personal history in Sarah Howe\u2019s Foretokens. <\/em>Shannon Clinton-Copeland<\/strong><\/a> situates Nick Makoha\u2019s The New Carthaginians<\/em> in a cultural landscape including Basquiat, Semblene and Virgil, and Lucas Sheridan<\/strong><\/a> probes the presence and absence of historical context in Tom Paulin\u2019s Namanlagh<\/em>. Caleb Simon<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s review of Karen Solie\u2019s Wellwater<\/em> interrogates the role of poetry amid climate breakdown, while Anna Jones<\/strong><\/a> explores Natalie Shapero\u2019s use of humour in Stay Dead.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Young Critics Scheme, now in its fourth year, is a partnership project inviting ten writers aged 18-25 to take part in a series of online workshops and to create short video reviews of each of the poetry collections shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. The aim is to develop the skills of emerging critics and to amplify the voices of young people in poetry.<\/p>\n

This year, the workshops included exercises on what makes a review engaging or alienating, critical methods reviewers might borrow from other disciplines, and how to present ideas to camera. The Young Critics heard from critic Helen Bowell, who led a session on different ways of opening a review, and Wasafiri <\/em>editor Sana Goyal, who shared her journey as a reviewer and some top tips for pitching to magazines and journals.<\/p>\n

Established in 2022, the Young Critics Scheme has kickstarted the reviewing careers of several of its alumni, who have gone on to publish reviews in\u202fThe Poetry Review<\/em>,\u202fPoetry London<\/em>, and\u202fMagma. <\/em>2024 Young Critic Orla Davey said, \u2018The Young Critics Scheme provided invaluable mentorship that vastly expanded my perspective and skillset as a reviewer. I had the opportunity to present a more creative portrayal of my critical analysis beyond written words, and experiment with new forms and styles of reviewing to visually promote a text to readers.\u2019<\/p>\n

Find out more about the Young Critics Scheme\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The T.S. Eliot Prize and The Poetry Society are delighted to publish the video reviews created by participants in this year\u2019s Young Critics Scheme.\u00a0 Michael Sims, Director of the T. S. Eliot Prize welcomed \u2018another brilliant year for the Young Critics Scheme’. He said, ‘The 2025 cohort\u2019s video reviews of the T. S. Eliot Prize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11509","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=11509"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11522,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11509\/revisions\/11522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}