The 10 shortlisted poetry collections for the 2023 TS Eliot prize announced today reflect the “disruption” of the present moment, said the chair of the judges, with poems drawing on the coronavirus pandemic, loss and war.
The winner, to be announced in January, will receive £25,000, while each shortlisted poet will receive £1,500.
“We are confident that all 10 shortlisted titles not only meet the high standards they set themselves but speak most effectively to, and of, their moment,” said Irish poet and judging chair Paul Muldoon, a past winner of the prize. “If there’s a single word for that moment it is surely ‘disrupted’, and all these poets properly reflect that disruption.
“Shot through though they are with images of grief, migration, and conflict, they are nonetheless imbued with energy and joy,” he continued. “The names of some poets will be familiar, others less so; all will find a place in your head and heart.”
Self-Portrait as Othello by Jason Allen-Paisant
More Sky by Joe Carrick-Varty
A Change in the Air by Jane Clarke
The Ink Cloud Reader by Kit Fan
Standing in the Forest of Being Alive by Katie Farris
School of Instructions by Ishion Hutchinson
Hyena! by Fran Lock
The Map of the World by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Balladz by Sharon Olds
I Think We’re Alone Now by Abigail Parry
US poet Sharon Olds, who won the prize in 2012, has this year been shortlisted for Balladz, which opens with a section of quarantine poems. Olds “writes about sex, love and the landscape of the body with zany intimacy”, wrote Kate Kellaway in her Observer review of the collection.
This year, two collections have made the shortlist despite breaking the rule that collections must be at least 48 pages long. Katie Farris’s Standing in the Forest of Being Alive and Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s The Map of the World were submitted by publishers in error, but the judges declined to exclude them. “Both are fully achieved poetry collections that merit their inclusion on the shortlist,” said the judges.
While Chuilleanáin’s collection looks at how we engage with the past, Farris’s memoir-like poetry debut is based on her experience with breast cancer. The other shortlisted debut, More Sky by Joe Carrick-Varty, is about how addiction and domestic violence shape a life and includes a 63-page poem on suicide.
In all, 186 collections were submitted by British and Irish publishers for consideration by the judging panel, which features the poets Sasha Dugdale and Denise Saul alongside Muldoon.
Self-Portrait as Othello, by Jason Allen-Paisant is a meditation on Black immigrant identities. This collection, along with The Ink Cloud Reader by Kit Fan and A Change in the Air by Jane Clarke, has also been shortlisted for the 2023 Forward prize for best poetry collection.
Completing the TS Eliot prize shortlist are School of Instructions by Ishion Hutchinson, I Think We’re Alone Now by Abigail Parry and Hyena! by Fran Lock.
The prize turns 30 this year, having been established in 1993. Previous winners include Ted Hughes, Don Paterson, Carol Ann Duffy and Ocean Vuong. The 2022 winner was Anthony Joseph with his collection Sonnets for Albert.
• This article was amended on 3 October 2023. An earlier version referred to a previous collection of Fran Lock’s, Hyena! Jackal! Dog!, rather than her shortlisted collection Hyena! The earlier version also only listed one collection, Self-Portrait as Othello, as having been shortlisted for both the Forward and the TS Eliot prizes, when in fact there are three that are on both lists.
