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The winner of the 2008 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry
The winner of ‘the world’s top poetry award’ (Irish Independent) has just been announced. Described as ‘the prize most poets want to win’ (Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate) the prize is awarded by the Poetry Book Society to the author of the best new collection of poetry published each year. It is unique among poetry prizes in being judged by a panel of established poets. Judges Andrew Motion (Chair), Lavinia Greenlaw and Tobias Hill have chosen Jen Hadfield's Nigh-No-Place as the 2008 winner. Jen Hadfield is a relative newcomer and a surprise winner. She won an Eric Gregory award in 2003 and her first collection, Almanacs, was published by Bloodaxe in 2005. She used her Eric Gregory award money to fund a year's residence in Canada. Nigh-No-Place was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation in Spring 2008. The Prize, which is supported by Mrs Valerie Eliot and the T S Eliot Foundation, and sponsored by the John S Cohen Foundation, was presented by Mrs Valerie Eliot at an award ceremony at Skinners' Hall in central London on 12th January. Thanks to the generosity of Mrs Valerie Eliot, the T S Eliot Prize is the largest cash award in British poetry. The winner received £15,000, increased from £10,000, and each of the shortlisted poets received a cheque for £1,000. The shortlist consisted of the following ten collections from submissions of 90 new collections which were published in 2008:
Poetry Bookshop Online to find more details and buy the books online. The book title links above will take you to the website pages for each book. An audio podcast of the T S Eliot Readings, which took place in London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on 11th January, will be available on the website on 13th January. The Poetry Book Society, also runs a poetry book club and a children's poetry book club, the Children's Poetry Bookshelf. The poets are featured on BBC's Today programme website, where you can also listen to recordings of them reading from their shortlisted work. The T S Eliot Prize Shadowing SchemeThe Prize was also accompanied by a Shadowing Scheme which allowed students to shadow the judges, run by the Poetry Book Society in association with emagazine, an A Level magazine published by the English and Media Centre. It comprised a poll to find out who the students thought should win the T S Eliot Prize (Ciaran Carson was the winner) and a competition for the best individual student’s rationale for their choice of winner. The competition was won by Patrick Ford of Marlborough College, who also chose Ciaran Carson. |
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