You are here

Shortlist announced for the TS Eliot Prize 2019

Judges John Burnside (Chair), Sarah Howe and Nick Makoha have chosen the 2019 TS Eliot Prize shortlist from 158 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers. Featuring new voices and veteran poets, and covering an extraordinary range of themes, the shortlist comprises five men, four women and one trans non binary; one American, one Russian-American and one Canadian, as well as poets of Trinidadian, Cypriot and Sri Lankan extraction.

The Shortlist

  • Anthony Anaxagorou, After the Formalities (Penned in the Margins)
  • Fiona Benson, Vertigo and Ghost (Cape Poetry)
  • Jay Bernard, Surge (Chatto & Windus)
  • Paul Farley, The Mizzy (Picador)
  • Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic (Faber)
  • Sharon Olds, Arias (Cape Poetry)
  • Vidyan Ravinthiran, The Million-Petalled Flower of Being Here (Bloodaxe)
  • Deryn Rees-Jones, Erato (Seren)
  • Roger Robinson, A Portable Paradise (Peepal Tree Press)
  • Karen Solie, The Caiplie Caves (Picador)
In an excellent year for poetry, the judges read over 150 collections from every corner of these islands, and beyond… Each had its own vital energy, its own argument to make, its own celebration or requiem to offer, and we knew that settling upon ten from so many fine books would be difficult. Nevertheless, as our deliberations progressed, the same titles kept coming to the fore, culminating in a list that brings together work by some of the finest and most fearless poets working today
John Burnside, Judge (Chair)
”

The TS Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings will take place on Sunday 12 January 2020 in Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. The shortlist readings are the largest annual poetry event in the UK and will be hosted by Ian McMillan. 

find out more