{"id":9285,"date":"2007-01-16T16:03:15","date_gmt":"2007-01-16T16:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tse.spyrosntanos.com\/?p=9285"},"modified":"2025-06-13T11:09:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T10:09:50","slug":"seamus-heaney-wins-the-t-s-eliot-prize-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/seamus-heaney-wins-the-t-s-eliot-prize-2006\/","title":{"rendered":"Seamus Heaney wins the T. S. Eliot Prize 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the <\/i>Poetry Book Society<\/i><\/a> website in 2007.<\/i><\/p>\n

The Poetry Book Society is pleased to announce that the winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize for the best single-author collection of poetry published in 2006 is:<\/p>\n

Seamus Heaney, for his collection District and Circle <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Heaney’s daughter Catherine accepts a cheque for \u00a310,000 from Mrs Valerie Eliot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After several hours of deliberation and much lively debate, the judges of the 2006 prize, Sean O\u2019Brien<\/strong>, Sophie Hannah<\/strong> and Gwyneth Lewis<\/strong>, reached a consensus. The winner was announced at an award ceremony in central London last night, where Catherine Heaney, Seamus\u2019s daughter, accepted a cheque for \u00a310,000 on his behalf from T. S. Eliot\u2019s widow, Mrs Valerie Eliot. Now in its thirteenth year, the T. S. Eliot Prize is poetry\u2019s most coveted award.<\/p>\n

Sean O\u2019Brien said, Chair of the judges, said:<\/p>\n

Seamus Heaney\u2019s District and Circle<\/em> is a commanding, exhilarating work. In an outstandingly strong field, this was an exceptional collection of poems.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On hearing that he had won the T. S. Eliot Prize 2006, Seamus Heaney said:<\/p>\n

There are many reasons to feel honoured by the award of this prize \u2013 the aura of T. S. Eliot\u2019s name, for a start; the distinction of the previous winners; the quality of the other poets on this year\u2019s shortlist; and the high regard in which the judges are held. When I called one of the poems in District and Circle <\/em>\u2018Anything Can Happen\u2019 I wasn\u2019t thinking that anything like this would happen to the book, but it certainly expresses what I\u2019m feeling at the moment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/strong>District and Circle <\/em>is Seamus Heaney\u2019s twelfth collection of poems. The sonnet sequence which gives the collection its name harks back to a summer in the early Sixties when Heaney spent rush hours travelling to work on the District and Circle underground lines. In fact, much of the book refers back to the past, but it is a past overshadowed and intercut by the threats and uncertainties of the present. Thus a US fireman\u2019s helmet, given as a gift twenty years previously, takes on new meaning; an old-fashioned turnip-snedder becomes a metaphor for unflinching brutality; that descent into the Underground carries barely hidden menace. However, this dark forboding is offset by joyfully spry verses in which Heaney evokes the happy ghosts of eminent writers who have gone before him.<\/p>\n

Anahorish 1944 <\/strong><\/p>\n

We were killing pigs when the Americans arrived.
\nA Tuesday morning, sunlight and gutter-blood
\nOutside the slaughterhouse. From the main road
\nThey would have heard the squealing,
\nThen heard it stop and had a view of us
\nIn our gloves and aprons coming down the hill.
\nTwo lines of them, guns on their shoulders, marching.
\nArmoured cars and tanks and open jeeps.
\nSunburnt hands and arms. Unknown, unnamed,
\nHosting for Normandy.
\nNot that we knew then
\nWhere they were headed, standing there like youngsters
\nAs they tossed us gum and tubes of coloured sweets.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Seamus Heaney, from the collection <\/em>District and Circle, published 2006 by Faber and Faber. By kind permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The T. S. Eliot Prize 2006 shortlist was:<\/p>\n

Simon Armitage \u2013 Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus the Corduroy Kid <\/em>(Faber & Faber)<\/p>\n

Paul Farley \u2013 Tramp in Flames <\/em>(Picador Poetry)<\/p>\n

Seamus Heaney \u2013 District and Circle <\/em>(Faber & Faber)<\/p>\n

W. N. Herbert \u2013 Bad Shaman Blues <\/em>(Bloodaxe Books)<\/p>\n

Jane Hirshfield \u2013 After<\/em> (Bloodaxe Books)<\/p>\n

Tim Liardet \u2013 The Blood Choir\u00a0<\/em>(Seren)<\/p>\n

Paul Muldoon \u2013 Horse Latitudes<\/em> (Faber & Faber)<\/p>\n

Robin Robertson \u2013 Swithering<\/em> (Picador Poetry)<\/p>\n

Penelope Shuttle \u2013 Redgrove’s Wife <\/em>(Bloodaxe Books)<\/p>\n

Hugo Williams \u2013 Dear Room<\/em> (Faber & Faber)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

The T. S. Eliot Prize is sponsored by the broadcaster Five.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article has been republished to provide a fuller picture of the T. S. Eliot Prize history. The Poetry Book Society ran the T. S. Eliot Prize until 2016, when the T. S. Eliot Foundation took over the Prize, the estate having supported it since its inception.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article on the T. S. Eliot Prize was first published on the Poetry Book Society website in 2007. The Poetry Book Society is pleased to announce that the winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize for the best single-author collection of poetry published in 2006 is: Seamus Heaney, for his collection District and Circle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[105,39],"class_list":["post-9285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-105","tag-winner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9285","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=9285"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10587,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9285\/revisions\/10587"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/prize\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}