Looking for your next read – or reread? This year, in conjunction with our partners at The Poetry Society, we asked a handful of Young Critics to dive into the T.S. Eliot Prize archives and explore winning collections from the Prize’s history. The first is Young Critic Shannon Clinton-Copeland‘s review of Derek Walcott’s White Egrets (Faber & Faber), the winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize 2010.

Roving the landscapes of St. Lucia, Walcott’s home, and elsewhere, White Egrets is ‘a painter’s collection, Walcott’s artist’s eye starkly evident’, writes Clinton-Copeland. But it does not ignore colonial failure and loss – ‘The nail marks of colonialism are not so easily erased’, she adds.

Read Shannon’s review in full on the T. S. Eliot Prize website and the Young Poets Network, and look out for Young Critics’ reviews of other winning collections over the coming weeks.

The Young Critics Scheme, established in 2022, is a prestigious partnership programme devised by The Poetry Society and the T. S. Eliot Prize. Every year, the scheme commissions ten emerging poetry reviewers to produce video reviews of the Prize Shortlist. Look out for the announcement of the 2026 cohort of Young Critics this September.

Shannon Clinton-Copeland was a Young Critic 2025. She is an Irish-Jamaican poet completing a PhD in early modern Irish literature and colonialism at UEA. Her work has been published by The Rialto, Acumen, Crannóg, berlin lit and others. She came runner-up in the Manchester Micropoetry Competition 2025.