The Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets are annual awards for pamphlets published in the UK. The awards aim to promote the pamphlet form and to enable poets and publishers to develop and continue creating. Since their inception, they have grown to include three annual awards, for "Poetry Pamphlet", "Publisher" and "Illustration", carrying prizes of up to £5,000, and awarding places on "The Michael Marks Poets in Residence Program" in Greece. Additional awards have included the "Poetry Pamphlet in a Celtic Language" and, as of 2022, the Environmental Poet of the Year prize.
The awards were founded in 2009 by the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, in a collaboration with the British Library that continues to this day. They are funded entirely by the Michael Marks Charitable Trust, and are enabled through partnerships between the British Library, the Wordsworth Trust, The TLS and the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, and in association with the National Library of Wales and the National Library of Scotland. As of 2012, the awards have been administered by
Wordsworth Trust
The Wordsworth Trust is an independent charity in the United Kingdom. It celebrates the life of the poet William Wordsworth, and looks after Dove Cottage in the Lake District village of Grasmere where Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordswor ...
. The Michael Marks Charitable Trust was established in 1966 by the late
Lord Marks, 2nd Baron of Broughton. Both awards carry a prize of £5,000.
[
The ]Nobel laureate
The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...
praised the prize's establishment:
Winners and nominees
The award recognises an outstanding work of poetry published in pamphlet form – defined by the Awards as containing no more than 36 pages – in the UK.
The following is a list of shortlisted pamphlets. Winners are listed in yellow, first in their year.
* 2016 shortlist announcement. Winner announcement. ''Wound'', by Richard Scott.
* 2017 shortlist announcement. Winner announcement. ''I Refuse to Turn into a Hatstand'', by Charlotte Wetton.
Michael Marks Publishers' Award
The Michael Marks Publishers' Award recognises an outstanding UK publisher of poetry in pamphlet form.
The following is a list of shortlisted publishers. Winners are listed in yellow, first in their year.
Award for Poetry in a Celtic Language
In 2019, the inaugural Michael Marks Award for Poetry in a Celtic Language was awarded to Morgan Owen
Morgan Owen (1584/5 – 1645) was bishop of Llandaff, Wales from 1639 but imprisoned and unable to exercise his charge from 1644. His Laudian views and the construction of the baroque south porch of St. Mary's University Church in Oxford (to ...
for his pamphlet ''moroedd/dŵr'', published by Cyhoeddiadau'r Stamp.
Michael Marks Award for Environmental Poet of the Year
This was inaugurated 2022-23 and recognises an outstanding UK poetry in pamphlet form about climate change, its effects and what to do about it.Linda France
Linda France is a British poet, writer and editor. She has published eight full-length poetry collections, a number of pamphlets, and was editor of the influential anthology, ''Sixty Women Poets''. France is the author of ''The Toast of the Kit- ...
for ''Letters to Katłįà'' published by The Wordsworth Trust.
* 2023-24: Jane Burn with ''A Thousand Miles from the Sea''
References
{{Reflist
External links
Michael Marks Awards
official website of the Awards
Michael Marks Awards
official website at British Library
British Library
British poetry awards
2009 establishments in the United Kingdom
Awards established in 2009
Publisher awards