T. S. Eliot Prize 2023

Poet and Creative Writing lecturer shortlisted in prestigious prize

Creative Writing’s Abigail Parry has been named in the 30^th anniversary T. S. Eliot Prize 2023 shortlist for her second collection I Think We’re Alone Now.

Abigail Parry’s first collection, Jinx (Bloodaxe Books, 2018), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Seamus Heaney Prize for Best First Collection, and named a Book of the Year in the New Statesman, The Telegraph and the Morning Star. She has won a number of prizes and awards for her work, including the Ballymaloe Prize and an Eric Gregory Award.

Chosen by judges Paul Muldoon, Sasha Dugdale and Denise Saul from 186 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers, the list features two debuts, two second collections, a former winner and two previously shortlisted poets.

Run by The T. S. Eliot Foundation, the T. S. Eliot Prize is the most valuable prize in British poetry, with a prize of £25,000 and £1,500 for shortlisted poets. The judging panel is looking for the best new poetry collection written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. It is the only major poetry prize which is judged purely by established poets.

Chair of judges Paul Muldoon said:

“We are confident that all ten shortlisted titles not only meet the high standards they set themselves but speak most effectively to, and of, their moment. 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. The names of some poets will be familiar, others less so; all will find a place in your head and heart.”

T. S. Eliot Prize 2023 Short List

The ten shortlisted poets hail from the UK, Ireland, Jamaica, Hong Kong and the USA:

Jason Allen-Paisant, Self-Portrait as Othello (Carcanet Press)

Joe Carrick-Varty, More Sky (Carcanet Press)

Jane Clarke, A Change in the Air (Bloodaxe Books)

Kit Fan, The Ink Cloud Reader (Carcanet Press)

Katie Farris, Standing in the Forest of Being Alive (Pavilion Poetry / Liverpool University Press)

Ishion Hutchinson, School of Instructions (Faber & Faber)

Fran Lock, Hyena! (Poetry Bus Press)

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, The Map of the World (Gallery Press)

Sharon Olds, Balladz (Cape Poetry)

Abigail Parry, I Think We’re Alone Now (Bloodaxe Books)

The winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize 2023 Prize is announced at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 15 January 2024, following Shortlist Readings on 14 January.

I Think We're Alone Now by Abigail Parry is published by Bloodaxe Books.