TS Eliot Prize 2019: Literary world's biggest poetry prize set to kick off this year's cultural calendar

Literary calendar: The TS Eliot Prize means January doesn't have to be a wasteland
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Poetry fans will know that January is not, in fact, the cruellest month: it marks the annual return of the TS Eliot Prize, the biggest poetry award in the literary world.

Kickstarting the cultural calendar for 2020, the TS Eliot Prize pits poetry titans against emerging talents; to win, the poet must have written - what the judges deem, at least - the best new poetry collection published in the UK and Ireland within the last year.

This year’s ten-strong shortlist includes previous winner Sharon Olds for her thirteenth collection, Arias; Fiona Benson for a collection that depicts Zeus as a serial rapist; and Jay Bernard, who picked up the Ted Hughes prize last year for their collection about the 1981 New Cross fire.

As per tradition, all of the shortlisted poets will read from their collections at the Southbank Centre this Sunday (January 12), in an event hosted by poet Ian McMillan. The winner of this year’s prize, who will receive £25,000, will be announced the following day. All shortlisted poets will receive £1,500, with funds provided by the TS Eliot Foundation.

This year's shortlisted poets. Top row, left to right: Anthony Anaxagorou, Fiona Benson, Jay Bernard, Paul Farley, Illya Kaminsky. Bottom row, left to right: Sharon Olds, Vidyan Ravinthiran, Deryn Rees-Jones, Roger Robinson and Karen Solie Anthony Anaxagorou  

The winner, judged by a new panel of distinguished poets each year, will this year be decided by John Burnside, Sarah Howe and Nick Makoha. And they will join a formidable list of previous winners, which includes Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy, Anne Carson and Seamus Heaney.

This year’s shortlist in full consists of:

After the Formalities by Anthony Anaxagorou 
Vertigo & Ghost by Fiona Benson 

Surge by Jay Bernard 

The Mizzy by Paul Farley 

Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky

Arias by Sharon Olds 

The Million-Petalled Flower of Being Here by Vidyan Ravinthiran

Erato by Deryn Rees-Jones

A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson 

The Caiplie Caves by Karen Solie

This year’s TS Eliot Prize Readings will take place at the Southbank Centre on January 12; tickets available at southbankcentre.co.uk

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