The T. S. Eliot Prize, which former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion has described as “the Prize poets most want to win”, is an annual prize for the best new poetry collection published in the UK or Ireland. The shortlist for the 2024 T S Eliot Prize has just been revealed, as judges have chosen poems to “make you well up, to inspire you to write, and most of all to invite you to read”.

Judges Mimi Khalvati (Chair), Anthony Joseph and Hannah Sullivan chose the shortlist from 187 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers.

This year’s list comprises seasoned poets, two debuts, two second collections and two previously shortlisted poets from both long-established and small independent presses.

T S Eliot 2024 Prize Shortlist:

Signs, Music by Raymond Antrobus

Lapwing by Hannah Copley

The Penny Dropping by Helen Farish

Fierce Elegy by Peter Gizzi

High Jump as Icarus Story by Gustav Parker Hibbett

Eleanor Among the Saints by Rachel Mann

Adam by Gboyega Odubanjo

Scattered Snows, to the North by Carl Phillips

Rhizodont by Katrina Porteous

Top Doll by Karen McCarthy Woolf

Chair of the Judges Mimi Khalvati commented: “Our shortlisted poets are wonderfully diverse in style, theme and idiom, embracing myth, pop culture, sport, faith, trans identity, AI – a gamut of present and past life. Throughout these collections runs a strong strain of elegy, responding to our dark times with testaments of loss and grief. There is also humour, intimacy, joy and energy – poems to make you well up, to inspire you to write, and most of all to invite you to read.”

The T S Eliot Prize 2024 Shortlist readings will take place on Sunday 12th January 2025 at 7pm in the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall as part of its literature programme. This is the largest annual poetry event in the UK. Tickets for the readings are now on sale. A live stream will also be available.

The winner of the 2024 Prize will be announced at the award ceremony on Monday 13th January 2025, where the winner and the shortlisted poets will be presented with their cheques. The winner will receive a cheque for £25,000. 

T. S. Eliot Prize 2023 was awarded to Jason Allen-Paisant for Self-Portrait as Othello.

To find out more visit https://tseliot.com/

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