TS Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings
Hear the best new poetry coming out of the UK and Ireland, read by the ten shortlisted poets for this year’s prize, in an event hosted by poet Ian McMillan.
The T.S. Eliot Prize is the world’s most prestigious prize for poetry. Past winners include internationally renowned poets with established reputations, as well as newly emerging writers helping to reshape the art form.
This year, the shortlist has been chosen by judges Michael Hofmann (Chair), Patience Agbabi and Niall Campbell.
The shortlist for this year’s prize features:
Gillian Allnut, Lode (Bloodaxe Books)
Isabelle Baafi, Chaotic Good (Faber & Faber)
Catherine-Esther Cowie, Heirloom (Carcanet Press)
Paul Farley, When it Rained for a Million Years (Picador Poetry)
Vona Groarke, Infinity Pool (Gallery Press)
Sarah Howe, Foretokens (Chatto Poetry)
Nick Makoha, The New Carthaginians (Penguin Press)
Tom Paulin, Namanlagh (Faber & Faber)
Natalie Shapero, Stay Dead (Out-Spoken Press)
Karen Solie, Wellwater (Picador Poetry)
The T.S. Eliot Prize is among the world’s most celebrated awards. Inaugurated in 1993 to celebrate the Poetry Book Society’s 40th birthday and to honour its founding poet, the Prize is now awarded by the T.S. Eliot Foundation.
Presented in collaboration with the T.S. Eliot Foundation
Need to know
Box package
You can buy an exclusive box package for this event. More details of our Royal Festival Hall exclusive box package.
Access
To book tickets for BSL interpretation, email [email protected] or call us on 020 3879 9555.
You can join our free Access Scheme through your online Southbank Centre account or via email.
Find out more about our Access Scheme
All our access information
For your visit
This event is held at the Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre
The Royal Festival Hall is open six days a week.
Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 11pm
Monday, closed.
Plan your visit
The Royal Festival Hall is home to our largest auditorium as well as The Clore Ballroom, National Poetry Library, Members’ Lounge, Festival Bar & Kitchen, Ballroom Cafe and Skylon restaurant.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Food & drink
On Level 2 of our Royal Festival Hall you can grab a slice of life by the Thames with drinks and freshly made pizza at our Festival Bar & Kitchen which opens out onto our Riverside Terrace. You can grab a coffee and a slice of freshly made cake from our Ballroom Cafe. Or alternatively enjoy destination dining in the restaurant at Skylon.
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.