TS Eliot Prize Shortlists Andrew Motion and Jorie Graham for £25,000 Award
According to The Guardian, Jorie Graham, a Pulitzer prize winner, and Andrew Motion, the former UK poet laureate, are among the 10 poets who have been shortlisted for this year’s £25,000 TS Eliot prize. The award stands as the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious prize for a single volume of poetry.
Gravity Archives and Killing Spree Lead the Field
Motion earned his place on the shortlist for Gravity Archives, while Graham secured her spot with Killing Spree. In a review for The Guardian, Sandeep Parmar wrote that Motion’s collection showcases a “rooted and resolute eye surveying the mortality of others as well as his own.” Motion served as the UK poet laureate from 1999 to 2009 and has written more than 15 poetry collections alongside biographies of John Keats and Philip Larkin.
Graham published 16 collections and won the 1996 Pulitzer prize for poetry for The Dream of the Unified Field. She was previously shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize in 2012 for her collection PLACE, which also won the Forward prize for best collection.
Competition From Slam Champions and Debut Collections
The 2024 shortlist includes British poet and writer Keith Jarrett for his second collection, Hide Me Under the Blood and I Shall Be Satisfied, which is additionally shortlisted for this year’s Forward prize. Jarrett works as a poetry slam champion whose art has previously appeared projected onto the facade of St Paul’s Cathedral. Imani Mason Jordan joins the list with PIVOT, marking the sole debut collection among the finalists.
Canadian poet Sylvia Legris secured a spot for Sleep Gate. Shara McCallum enters the shortlist with her seventh collection, Behold.
Judging Panel Selections From 174 Submissions
Other finalists are Billy Ramsell from Ireland for Render, Jana Prikryl for The Channel, Holly Pester for Cafés, and Kim Moore, who won the 2022 Forward prize, for The House of Broken Things. Leontia Flynn chaired the judging panel alongside fellow poets Ishion Hutchinson and Daisy Lafarge. The judges selected the 10 competing books from a total of 174 submissions provided by 65 British and Irish publishers.
“Though very different in voice, style and preoccupation, these 10 collections share a determination to meet the challenges faced in difficult times with closer attention to language,” Flynn stated. “Each of these books reminds us why, when nothing else makes much sense, it’s to poetry we turn to reorient ourselves.”
Poetry Book Society Awards Prize to Poets
The Poetry Book Society established the prize in 1993 to mark its 40th anniversary and honor founding poet TS Eliot. The victor will take home £25,000, while the remaining nine shortlisted poets will each receive £1,500. Last year’s competition was won by Canadian poet Karen Solie for Wellwater. Recent historical winners include Joelle Taylor, Jason Allen-Paisant, Anthony Joseph, and Bhanu Kapil.
The shortlisted poets will perform readings from their nominated works at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London on January 17. The winner will be announced at a formal ceremony hosted at the Wallace Collection the following day.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Poetry Prize
How much do the shortlisted poets receive?
Each of the 10 shortlisted poets receives £1,500, while the eventual winner takes home the main £25,000 prize.
Who won the award last year?
Canadian poet Karen Solie won last year’s prize for her collection Wellwater.
How many submissions were considered by the judges?
The judging panel selected the 10 shortlisted collections out of 174 total submissions sent by 65 publishers across the UK and Ireland.
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