The T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry 2024 shortlist was announced in London, UK on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. Here are the writers of African descent on the list.
T.S. Eliot, full name Thomas Stearns Eliot had the poetry collections Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), Ara Vos Prec (London), and Poems: 1920 (New York). The United States-born poet, who passed away in 1965, was also an essayist, publisher, playwright, and literary and social critic.
The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry was founded to celebrate the UK Poetry Book Society’s 40th birthday and honour its founding poet in 1993. It is awarded annually to the author of the best new collection of poetry published in the UK and Ireland. Previous winners include Derek Walcott (2010), John Burnside (2011), Sharon Olds (2012), Sinéad Morrissey (2013), David Harsent (2014) Sarah Howe (2015), Jacob Polley (2016), Ocean Vuong (2017), and Hannah Sullivan (2018). Anthony Joseph and Jason Allen-Paisant have won the award in recent years.
The shortlist for 2024 was announced with jury chair Mimi Khalvati saying, “Our shortlisted poets are wonderfully diverse in style, theme and idiom, embracing myth, pop culture, sport, faith, trans identity, AI – a gamut of present and past life. Throughout these collections runs a strong strain of elegy, responding to our dark times with testaments of loss and grief. There is also humour, intimacy, joy and energy – poems to make you well up, to inspire you to write, and most of all to invite you to read.”
The writers of African descent on the shortlist are;
- Raymond Antrobus, Signs, Music (Picador Poetry)
- Gustav Parker Hibbett, High Jump as Icarus Story (Banshee Press)
- Gboyega Odubanjo, Adam (Faber & Faber) (DECEASED)
- Carl Phillips, Scattered Snows, to the North (Carcanet Press)
- Karen McCarthy Woolf, Top Doll (Dialogue Books)
Reactions
Wow! The dolls are beside themselves with joy & excitement ⚡️ It’s amazing to be on this ⚡️⚡️ list selected by these ⚡️⚡️⚡️ judges.
Karen McCarthy Woolf
Thanks @tseliotprize – honoured to see the company ‘Signs, Music’ is keeping on this year’s T.S Eliot shortlist.
Raymond Antrobus
It’s such an incredible honor to have High Jump as Icarus Story shortlisted for this year’s T.S. Eliot Prize 💛🧡 ENORMOUS thank you to the judges, @tseliotprize, and @banshee.lit 🥰 the immense quality of my company on this shortlist (and of the legacy of Eliot shortlists past) isn’t lost on me — what a rare and special joy to be here ♥️♥️♥️
Gustav Parker Hibbett
I’m shocked and thrilled to be on this list @tseliotprize alongside so many wonderful poets including my friend @p.g.gizzi and fellow press mate Rachel Mann!
Carl Phillips
The winner will be announced at an award Ceremony on Monday, January 13, 2025, where the winner and the shortlisted poets will be presented with their cheques. The winner will receive a cheque for £25,000.
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