The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is a prize for

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

awarded by the T. S. Eliot Foundation. For many years it was awarded by the Eliots'

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) is a British subscription-based book club dedicated to selecting, recommending and publicising new poetry books. Every quarter, it selects two Poetry Book Society Choices and four Poetry Book Society Recommendations. ...

(UK) for "the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland" in any particular year. The Prize was inaugurated in 1993 in celebration of the Poetry Book Society's 40th birthday and in honour of its founding poet,

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

. Since its inception, the prize money was donated by Eliot's widow,

Valerie Eliot Esmé Valerie Eliot (née Fletcher; 17 August 19269 November 2012) was the second wife and later widow of the Nobel Prize-winning poet T. S. Eliot. She was a major shareholder in the publishing firm of Faber and Faber Limited and the editor and a ...

and more recently it has been given by the T. S. Eliot Estate. The T. S. Eliot Foundation took over the administration of the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2016, appointing as its new director Chris Holifield (formerly director of the Poetry Book Society), when the former Poetry Book Society charity had to be wound up, with its book club and company name taken over by book sales agency Inpress Ltd in Newcastle. Holifield retired at the end of June 2022 after 20 years in the post, and was replaced by Mike Sims. The winner now receives £25,000 and the ten shortlisted poets each receive £1,500, making it the United Kingdom's most valuable annual poetry competition. The Prize has been called "the most coveted award in poetry". The shortlist for the Prize is announced in October of each year, and the 10 shortlisted poets take part in the Readings at the

Royal Festival Hall The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,700-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London, England. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a G ...

in London's

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is an arts centre in London, England. It is adjacent to the separately owned National Theatre and BFI Southbank. It comprises the three main performance spaces – the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Purcell R ...

on the evening before the announcement of the Prize. Two thousand people attended the 2011 reading.

Winners and Shortlists

1990s

2000s

2001 saw Canadian poet

Anne Carson Anne Patricia Carson (born June 21, 1950) is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, classicist, and professor. Trained at the University of Toronto, Carson has taught classics, comparative literature, and creative writing at universities across ...

become the first woman to win the TS Eliot Prize.

2010s

2011 saw two shortlisted nominees, including 2002 winner

Alice Oswald Alice Priscilla Lyle Oswald (née Keen; born 31 August 1966) is a British poet from Reading, Berkshire. Her work won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second ...

, withdraw their works as a protest against the sponsor.

2020s

List of judges

* 1993 – Peter Porter,

Fleur Adcock Fleur Adcock (10 February 1934 – 10 October 2024) was a New Zealand poet and editor. Of English and Northern Irish ancestry, Adcock lived much of her life in England. She is well-represented in New Zealand poetry anthologies, was awarded an ...

Edna Longley Edna Longley, (born 1940) is an Irish literary critic and cultural commentator specialising in modern Irish and British poetry. Early life and education Born in Cork in 1940, the daughter of mathematics professor T. S. Broderick and a Scott ...

, Robert Crawford and John Lucas * 1994 –

Elaine Feinstein Elaine Feinstein FRSL (born Elaine Cooklin; 24 October 1930 – 23 September 2019) was an English poet, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, biographer and translator. She joined the Council of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007. Earl ...

Ciaran Carson Ciaran Gerard Carson ( Irish: ''Ciarán Gearóid Mac Carráin''; 9 October 1948 – 6 October 2019) was a Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist. Early life and education Ciaran Carson was born on 9 October 1948 in Belfast Belfast ...

, Robert Crawford, John Fuller and

Candia McWilliam Candia Frances Juliet McWilliam (born 1 July 1955) is a Scottish author. Her father was the architectural writer and academic Colin McWilliam. Literary career Born in Edinburgh, McWilliam was educated at St George's School for Girls in the ...

* 1995 –

James Fenton James Martin Fenton (born 25 April 1949) is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry. Life and career Born in Lincoln, Fenton grew up in Lincolnshire and Staffordshire, the son of Canon Jo ...

Maura Dooley Maura Dooley (born 18 May 1957) is a British poet and writer. She has published five collections of poetry and edited several anthologies. She is the winner of the Eric Gregory Award in 1987 and the Cholmondeley Award in 2016, and was shortli ...

and

Liz Lochhead Liz Lochhead Hon FRSE (born 26 December 1947) is a Scottish poet, playwright, translator and broadcaster. Between 2011 and 2016 she was the Makar, or National Poet of Scotland, and served as Poet Laureate for Glasgow between 2005 and 2011. ...

* 1996 –

Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Peter Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and a ...

Helen Dunmore Helen Dunmore FRSL (12 December 1952 – 5 June 2017) was a British poet, novelist, and short story and children's writer. Her best known works include the novels ''Zennor in Darkness'', ''A Spell of Winter'' and ''The Siege (Dunmore novel) , ...

and

Ruth Padel Ruth Sophia Padel FRSL FZS (born 8 May 1946) is a British poet, novelist and non-fiction author. Life She studied Greek at Oxford, where she sang in Schola Cantorum of Oxford, wrote a PhD on ancient Greek poetry, and was a Research Fellow at W ...

* 1997 –

Gillian Clarke Gillian Clarke (born 8 June 1937) is a Welsh poet and playwright, who also edits, broadcasts, lectures and translates from Welsh into English. She co-founded Tŷ Newydd, a writers' centre in North Wales. Life Gillian Clarke was born on 8 ...

, Sean O’Brien and

Hugo Williams Hugo Williams (born Hugh Anthony Mordaunt Vyner Williams on 20 February 1942) is an English poet, journalist and travel writer. He received the T. S. Eliot Prize in 1999 and Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2004. Family and early life Will ...

* 1998 – Bernard O’Donoghue,

Simon Armitage Simon Robert Armitage (born 26 May 1963) is an English poet, playwright, musician and novelist. He was appointed Poet Laureate on 10 May 2019. He is professor of poetry at the University of Leeds. He has published over 20 collections of poetr ...

and

* 1999 –

Blake Morrison Philip Blake Morrison (born 8 October 1950) is an English poet and author who has published in a wide range of fiction and non-fiction genres. His greatest success came with the publication of his memoirs ''And When Did You Last See Your Father?' ...

Selima Hill Selima Hill (born 13 October 1945) is a British poet. She has published twenty poetry collections since 1984. Her 1997 collection, ''Violet'', was shortlisted for the most important British poetry awards: the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry ...

and

Jamie McKendrick Jamie McKendrick (born 27 October 1955) is a British poet and translator. Early life and education McKendrick was born in Liverpool, 27 October 1955, and educated at the Quaker school, Bootham, York, and Liverpool College. He studied English L ...

* 2000 –

Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon is an Irish poet. He has published more than thirty collections and won a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the T. S. Eliot Prize. At Princeton University he has been both the Howard G. B. Clark '21 University Professor in the Humani ...

Glyn Maxwell Glyn Maxwell (born 1962) is a British poet, playwright, novelist, librettist, and lecturer. Early life Of primarily Welsh heritage — his mother Buddug-Mair Powell (b. 1928) acted in the original stage show of Dylan Thomas's ''Under Milk Wood'' ...

and

Kathleen Jamie Kathleen Jamie FRSL (born 13 May 1962) is a Scottish poet and essayist. In 2021 she became Scotland's fourth Makar. Life and work Kathleen Jamie is a poet and essayist. Raised in Currie, near Edinburgh, she studied philosophy at the University ...

* 2001 –

John Burnside John Burnside (19 March 1955 – 29 May 2024) was a Scottish writer. He was one of four poets (with Ted Hughes, Sean O'Brien and Jason Allen-Paisant) to have won the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize for a single book – in th ...

and

Maurice Riordan Maurice Riordan (born 1953) is an Irish poet, translator, and editor. Born in Lisgoold, County Cork, his poetry collections include: ''A Word from the Loki'' (1995), a largely London-based collection which was a Poetry Book Society Choice an ...

* 2002 –

Michael Longley Michael George Longley (27 July 1939 – 22 January 2025) was a Northern Irish poet. In his later years Longley observed: "It's a mystery where poems come from. If I knew where poems came from I would go there ... When I write a poem I am movi ...

, Fred D’Aguiar and

Deryn Rees-Jones Deryn Rees-Jones (born 1968) is an Anglo-Welsh poet, who lives and works in Liverpool. Although Rees-Jones has spent much of her life in Liverpool, she spent much of her childhood in the family home of Eglwys-bach in North Wales. She considers he ...

* 2003 –

David Harsent David Harsent (born in Devon in 1942) is an English poet who for some time earned his living as a TV scriptwriter and crime novelist. Background During his early career he was part of a circle of poets centred on Ian Hamilton and forming somet ...

Mimi Khalvati Mimi Khalvati (born 28 April 1944) is an Iranian-born British poet. She is the recipient of the King's Gold Medal for Poetry for 2023, awarded for "her outstanding talent and ability to draw on diverse cultural traditions – Iranian, English a ...

and

George Szirtes George Szirtes (; born 29 November 1948) is a British poet and translator from the Hungarian language into English. Originally from Hungary, he has lived in the United Kingdom for most of his life after coming to the country as a refugee at the ...

* 2004 –

Douglas Dunn Douglas Eaglesham Dunn, OBE (born 23 October 1942) is a Scottish poet, academic, and critic. He is Professor of English and Director of St Andrew's Scottish Studies Institute at St Andrew's University. Background Dunn was born in Inchinnan, ...

Paul Farley Paul Farley FRSL (born 1965) is a British poet, writer and broadcaster. Life and work Farley was born in Liverpool. He studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art, and has lived in London, Brighton and Cumbria. His first collection of poetry ...

and

Carol Rumens Carol Rumens FRSL (born 10 December 1944) is a British poet. Life Carol Rumens was born in Forest Hill, South London. She won a scholarship to Manchester Grammar School and later studied Philosophy at London University, but left before compl ...

* 2005 –

David Constantine David John Constantine (born 1944) is an English poet, short story writer, novelist, and translator. Life and career Born in Salford, Constantine read Modern Languages at Wadham College, Oxford, and was a Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford, ...

Kate Clanchy Kate Clanchy MBE (born 1965) is a British poet, freelance writer and teacher. Education and early life She was born in 1965 in Glasgow to medieval historian Michael Clanchy and teacher Joan Clanchy (née Milne). She was educated at George Wa ...

and

Jane Draycott Jane Draycott FRSL is a British poet, artistic collaborator and poetry translator. She was born in London in 1954 and studied at King's College London and the University of Bristol. Draycott's fifth collectio''The Kingdom''was published in 2023 ...

* 2006 –

Sophie Hannah Sophie Hannah (born ) is a British poet and novelist. Biography Hannah was born in Manchester, England; her mother is the author Adèle Geras. She attended Beaver Road Primary School in Didsbury and the University of Manchester. From 1997 to ...

Gwyneth Lewis Gwyneth Denver Davies , FLSW (born 1959), known professionally as Gwyneth Lewis, is a Welsh poet, who was the inaugural National Poet of Wales in 2005. She wrote the text that appears over the Wales Millennium Centre. Biography Gwyneth Lew ...

and Sean O'Brien * 2007 –

Sujata Bhatt Sujata Bhatt (born 6 May 1956) is an acclaimed Indian poet known for her evocative and culturally rich works, has carved a unique niche in the world of literature through her exploration of identity, language, and cultural intricacies. Born in In ...

W. N. Herbert W. N. Herbert , also known as Bill Herbert (born 1961) is a poet from Dundee, Scotland. He writes in both English and Scots. He and Richard Price founded the poetry magazine ''Gairfish''. He currently teaches at Newcastle University. Early li ...

and Peter Porter * 2008 –

Lavinia Greenlaw Lavinia Elaine Greenlaw (born 30 July 1962) is an English poet, novelist and non-fiction writer. She won the Prix du Premier Roman with her first novel and her poetry has been shortlisted for awards that include the T. S. Eliot Prize, Forward Pri ...

Tobias Hill Tobias Fleet Hill (30 March 1970 – 26 August 2023) was a British poet, essayist, writer of short stories and novelist. Life Tobias Hill was born in Kentish Town, in North London, to parents of German Jewish and English extraction; Hill iden ...

and

* 2009 –

Colette Bryce Colette Bryce is a poet, freelance writer, and editor. She was a Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Dundee from 2003 to 2005, and a North East Literary Fellow at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne from 2005 to 2007. She was the ...

and

Penelope Shuttle Penelope Shuttle (born 12 May 1947) is an English poet and author. She has published fifteen volumes of poetry, plus two selected volumes, and six works of fiction. She has won the Eric Gregory Award and the Cholmondeley Award and has been sho ...

* 2010 –

Bernardine Evaristo Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo (born 28 May 1959) is an English author and academic. Her novel ''Girl, Woman, Other'' jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's ''The Testaments'', making her the first Black woman to win ...

Anne Stevenson Anne Katharine Stevenson (January 3, 1933 – September 14, 2020) was an American-British poet and writer and recipient of a Lannan Literary Award. Life Stevenson was the first daughter of Louise Destler Stevenson and philosopher Charles Ste ...

and

Michael Symmons Roberts Michael Symmons Roberts FRSL (born 1963) is a British poet. He has published eight collections of poetry, all with Cape (Random House), and has won the Forward Prize, the Costa Book Award and the Whitbread Prize for Poetry, as well as major p ...

* 2011 –

, Stephen Knight and

Dennis O'Driscoll Dennis O'Driscoll (1 January 1954 – 24 December 2012) was an Irish poet, essayist, critic and editor. Regarded as one of the best European poets of his time, Eileen Battersby considered him "the lyric equivalent of William Trevor" and ...

* 2012 –

Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, and her term expired in 2019. She wa ...

and David Morley * 2013 –

Imtiaz Dharker Imtiaz Dharker (born 31 January 1954) is a Pakistani-born British poet, artist, and video film maker. She won the Queen's Gold Medal for her English poetry and was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University from January 2020. In 2019, she ...

Ian Duhig Robert Ian Duhig (born 9 February 1954 London) is a British-Irish poet. In 2014, he was chair of the judging panel for the T. S. Eliot Prize awards. Life He was the eighth of eleven children born to Irish parents. He graduated from Leeds Unive ...

and

Vicki Feaver Vicki Feaver (born 1943) is an English poet. She has published three poetry collections. Feaver's poem "Judith", from her book, ''Handless Maiden'', was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem. The book was also the recipient of a Heinem ...

* 2014 –

Sean Borodale Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Hiberno-English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...

and

Fiona Sampson Fiona Ruth Sampson (born 1963) is a British poet, literary biographer, writer on ecology, editor, translator and scholar. She was appointed an MBE for services to literature in 2017. Early life Sampson was born in London, England, and was ra ...

* 2015 –

Kei Miller Kei Miller (born 24 October 1978) is a Jamaican poet, fiction writer, essayist and blogger. He is also a professor of creative writing.Pascale Petit and Ahren Warner * 2016 –

Julia Copus Julia Copus FRSL (born 1969) is a British poet, biographer and children's writer. Copus was born in London and grew up with three brothers, two of whom went on to become musicians. She attended The Mountbatten School, a comprehensive in Roms ...

and Alan Gillis * 2017 –

James Lasdun James Lasdun (born 8 June 1958) is an English novelist and poet. Life and career Lasdun was born in London, the son of Susan (Bendit) and British architect Sir Denys Lasdun. Lasdun has written four novels, including , a New York Times Notable B ...

and

Helen Mort Helen Mort (born 28 September 1985, Sheffield) is a British poet and novelist. She is a five-time winner of the Foyle Young Poets award, received an Eric Gregory Award from The Society of Authors in 2007, and won the Manchester Poetry Prize Yo ...

* 2018 –

Clare Pollard Clare Eve Pollard FRSL (born 1978, England) is a British writer (poet, novelist and playwright), literary translator and (prize jury) critic. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2024. Early life and education Poll ...

Sinéad Morrissey Sinéad Morrissey (born 24 April 1972 in Portadown, County Armagh) is a Northern Irish poet. In January 2014 she won the T. S. Eliot Prize for her fifth collection ''Parallax: And Selected Poems, Parallax'' and in 2017 she won the Forward Priz ...

and

Daljit Nagra Daljit Nagra (born 1966) is a British poet whose debut collection, ''Look We Have Coming to Dover!'' was published by Faber in 2007. Nagra's poems relate to the experience of Indians born in the UK (especially Indian Sikhs), and often employ l ...

* 2019 –

, Sarah Howe and

Nick Makoha Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet and playwright. His writing has appeared in publications and outlets including ''The New York Times'', ''Poetry Review'', ''Rialto'', ''Poetry London'', ''Triquarterly Review'', ''Boston Review'', ''Callaloo'', and ' ...

* 2020 –

Mona Arshi Mona Arshi is a British poet and novelist. She won the Forward Prize for Poetry, Best First Collection in 2015 for her debut collection, ''Small Hands''. She has also won the Manchester Poetry Prize. Her debut novel, ''Somebody Loves You'', w ...

and Andrew McMillan * 2021 –

Caroline Bird Caroline Bird (born 1986) is a British poet, playwright, and author. Life Caroline Bird was born in 1986. Daughter of Jude Kelly, she grew up in Leeds, England, and attended the Steiner School in York and the Lady Eleanor Holles School befo ...

and Zaffar Kunial * 2022 –

Jean Sprackland Jean Sprackland (born 1962) is an English poet and writer, the author of five collections of poetry and two books of essays about place and nature. Biography Originally from Burton upon Trent, Jean Sprackland studied English and Philosophy at th ...

Hannah Lowe Hannah Lowe (born 1976) is a British writer, known for her collection of poetry ''Chick'' (2013), her family memoir ''Long Time, No See'' (2015) and her research into the historicising of the HMT ''Empire Windrush'' and postwar Caribbean migrat ...

and

Roger Robinson Roger Robinson may refer to: * Roger Robinson (American football coach) (died 2004), American football player and coach * Roger Robinson (actor) (1940–2018), American actor * Roger Robinson (poet), writer and performer * Roger Robinson (academic) ...

* 2023 –

Sasha Dugdale Sasha Dugdale FRSL is a British poet, playwright, editor and translator. She has written six poetry collections and is a translator of Russian literature. Biography Sasha Dugdale was born in 1974 in Sussex. Dugdale has published six poetry ...

and Denise Saul * 2024 –

Anthony Joseph Anthony Joseph FRSL (born 12 November 1966) is a British/Trinidadian poet, novelist, musician and academic. In 2023, he was awarded the T. S. Eliot Prize for his book ''Sonnets for Albert''. Biography Joseph was born in Port of Spain, Trin ...

and Hannah Sullivan

References

External links

T.S. Eliot Prize website
* {{T. S. Eliot, state=collapsed 1993 establishments in the United Kingdom Awards established in 1993 British poetry awards <--! Home country and scope (1) of award --> Irish literary awards <--! Scope (2) of award (UK and Ireland) --> T. S. Eliot