ShelfEvidentT.S. Eliot Prize
2025 Winner
Complete History
2020s
2010s
- 2019A Portable Paradise — Roger Robinson
- 2018Three Poems — Hannah Sullivan
- 2017Night Sky with Exit Wounds — Ocean Vuong
- 2016Jackself — Jacob Polley
- 2015Loop of Jade — Sarah Howe
- 2014Fire Songs — David Harsent
- 2013Parallax — Sinéad Morrissey
- 2012Stag's Leap — Sharon Olds
- 2011Black Cat Bone — John Burnside
- 2010White Egrets — Derek Walcott
2000s
- 2009The Water Table — Philip Gross
- 2008Nigh-No-Place — Jen Hadfield
- 2007The Drowned Book — Sean O'Brien
- 2006District and Circle — Seamus Heaney
- 2005Rapture — Carol Ann Duffy
- 2004Reel — George Szirtes
- 2003Landing Light — Don Paterson
- 2002Dart — Alice Oswald
- 2001The Beauty of the Husband — Anne Carson
- 2000The Weather in Japan — Michael Longley
About the T.S. Eliot Prize
The T.S. Eliot Prize is the United Kingdom's most prestigious and financially valuable annual poetry award, recognising the best collection of new verse in English first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland in any given year. Inaugurated in 1993 to celebrate the Poetry Book Society's fortieth anniversary and honour its founding poet, T.S. Eliot, it was originally administered by the Poetry Book Society before the T.S. Eliot Foundation took over administration in 2016 following the winding-up of the charity.
The prize money was donated for many years by Eliot's widow, Valerie Eliot, and more recently by the T.S. Eliot Estate. The winner currently receives £25,000, making it the UK's richest annual poetry competition, while each of the ten shortlisted poets receives £1,500. The shortlist is announced each October, and on the evening before the winner is announced, all shortlisted poets give a reading at the Royal Festival Hall in London's Southbank Centre—an event that regularly draws audiences of over 2,000.
The prize has been called 'the most coveted award in poetry' and has launched or cemented the reputations of numerous major poets. Past winners include Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Alice Oswald, Sharon Olds, Derek Walcott, and Ocean Vuong. The prize is open to collections by any living poet writing in English, providing the work was first published in the UK or Ireland, making it one of the few major British poetry prizes with genuine international reach.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Eligible collections must be new (not selected or collected works), written by a single living poet, at least 48 pages in length, at least 80% consisting of previously unpublished poems in book form, and first published in the UK or the Republic of Ireland during the eligibility year. Collections with more than 20% translations are not eligible.
- A panel of three judges, appointed annually, selects ten collections for the shortlist. The shortlist is announced in October, and all shortlisted poets give readings at the Royal Festival Hall on the evening before the winner is announced in January.
- The winner receives £25,000. Each of the ten shortlisted poets also receives £1,500, making the total prize fund one of the most generous in poetry.
- The T.S. Eliot Foundation has administered the prize since 2016, when it took over from the Poetry Book Society following the dissolution of that charity. The Foundation's director is Mike Sims, who succeeded founding director Chris Holifield in 2022.