T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry

T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, British literary award made annually by the Poetry Book Society (PBS) for “the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland”. The prize was established in 1993 to mark the 40th anniversary of the formation of the Poetry Book Society and to honour its founder, the Modernist poet T. S. Eliot. The £15,000 prize money is donated by Eliot’s widow, Valerie Eliot. The shortlisted poets receive £1,000 each.

Based in Tavistock Place, London, the PBS was created by T. S. Eliot and others in 1953 as a book club to promote contemporary poetry. Today the society has a membership of around 2,000, is the largest dedicated supplier of poetry books in the UK, and is funded by the Arts Council to organize poetry education and creative writing initiatives. Each quarter, a panel of respected poets recognizes the best in new poetry through selections in five categories: Choice, Recommendations, Special Commendation, Recommended Translation, and Pamphlet Choice. These works are then featured in the society’s quarterly magazine, Bulletin, which has been published continuously since 1953.

The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is adjudicated by a panel of three judges. Between six and ten shortlisted collections are drawn jointly from the judging panel’s selections and from the quarterly Choices of the PBS. The awards ceremony is preceded on the previous evening by a programme of readings by the shortlisted poets at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre.

The first to win the prize was the Belfast-born Northern Irish poet Ciaran Carson in 1993. Subsequent winners have included Paul Muldoon, Les Murray, Ted Hughes, Michael Longley, Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney, and Sean O'Brien. The first woman to win the prize was the Canadian poet Anne Carson in 2001.