{"id":5099,"date":"2018-11-01T11:13:23","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T11:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/?p=769"},"modified":"2025-05-27T12:31:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T11:31:14","slug":"the-t-s-eliot-prize-a-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/the-t-s-eliot-prize-a-retrospective\/","title":{"rendered":"The T. S. Eliot Prize \u2013 a retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mrs Valerie Eliot and Ciaran Carson, T. S. Eliot Prize winner 1993, in conversation at the celebration party.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 26th T. S. Eliot Prize will be awarded this year, two and half decades on from the inaugural Prize being presented in 1993 to Ciar\u00e1n Carson for his collection First Language<\/em>, published by The Gallery Press. Carson was shortlisted again in 2008 for For All We Know<\/em>, also published by The Gallery Press. Another Irish poet, Sin\u00e9ad Morrissey, has been shortlisted no less than four times: in 2002 for Between Here and There<\/em>, in 2005 for The State of the Prisons<\/em>, again in 2009 for Through the Square Window<\/em>, and finally in 2013 for Parallax<\/em> (all Carcanet Press), which won the Prize that year.\u00a0 Sean O\u2019Brien\u2019s career has seen him win every major poetry prize in the UK, having been shortlisted five times for the T. S. Eliot Prize: in 2001 for Downriver<\/em>, in 2007 for The Drowned Book <\/em>(which won the Prize that year), in 2011 for November<\/em>, in 2015 for The Beautiful Librarians<\/em> and again this year with Europa<\/em> (all Picador Poetry). Simon Armitage has been shortlisted no less than four times, alongside Pascale Petit and David Harsent, who won the Prize in 2014 with Fire Songs<\/em> (Faber). One of this year\u2019s Judges, Daljit Nagra, has been shortlisted twice, in 2011 and 2013.<\/p>\n

Many poets have been shortlisted twice or more, including Fiona Sampson (twice), Ruth Padel (three times), Paul Farley (three times), Kathleen Jamie (twice), Carol Ann Duffy (twice, winning with Rapture<\/em>\u00a0(Picador Poetry)\u00a0in 2005), Jacob Polley (three times, winning with Jackself<\/em> (Picador Poetry) in 2016), Mark Doty (three times, winning in the Prize\u2019s third year with My Alexandria<\/em> (Cape)), Jen Hadfield (shortlisted twice, winning with her debut Nigh-no-place<\/em> (Bloodaxe Books) in 2008), Anne Carson (twice), Sharon Olds (twice, winning in 2013 with Stag\u2019s Leap<\/em> (Cape Poetry), Seamus Heaney (three times, winning with District and Circle<\/em> in 2006), Robin Robertson (three times), Selima Hill (twice, in 2001 and 2015), Michael Longley (three times, winning in 2000 with The Weather in Japan<\/em> (Cape)), and John Burnside (three times, winning in 2011 with Black Cat Bone<\/em> (Cape)). Don Paterson, who has been shortlisted three times, remains the only poet to have won the Prize twice, in 1997 with God\u2019s Gift to Women<\/em> and again in 2003 with Landing Light<\/em> (both Faber).<\/p>\n

In the last ten years, the Prize has been won three times by debut collections \u2013 Jen Hadfield in 2008, Sarah Howe with Loop of Jade<\/em> in 2015 and Ocean Vuong last year with Night Sky with Exit Wounds<\/em>. Many debut collections have been shortlisted down the years, notably Jacob Polley\u2019s The Brink <\/em>in 2003, Kathryn Gray\u2019s The Never Never<\/em> in 2004, Helen Farish\u2019s Intimates<\/em> in 2005, Francis Leviston\u2019s Public Dream<\/em> in 2008, Sam Willetts\u2019s New Light for the Old Dark<\/em> in 2010, Helen Mort\u2019s Division Street<\/em> in 2013 and Fiona Benson\u2019s Bright Travellers<\/em> in 2014.<\/p>\n

A total of seven publishers have won the T. S. Eliot Prize: poets from Faber & Faber have won nine times, Cape Poetry six, Bloodaxe Books and Picador Poetry three times each, Carcanet Press twice, and Chatto & Windus and The Gallery Press once each.<\/p>\n

Past Winners<\/strong><\/p>\n