Would your reading groups like to give poetry a go? 

The Poetry Book Society is delighted to announce the launch of a new reading group scheme based on the shortlist for the 2010 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry. We are hoping to encourage poetry reading groups to read the shortlist and to persuade fiction reading groups to try poetry, using the work of the poets shortlisted for the Prize.

The ten-book shortlist will be announced on Thursday 21 October. From that day reading groups will be able to download a biography and photo of each poet and three poems from their book, together with reading group notes on the poems, and to incorporate them into their reading plans, from www.poetrybooks.co.uk/projects/13. Libraries will be able to order books from the PBS using generous reading group discounts.

The PBS website will offer readers the opportunity to vote for their favourite poet online and to take part in discussion of the shortlist. Readers will be able to sign up for a weekly email which will cover the ten poets in turn and keep them up-to-date with news of the Prize.

There will also be a prize draw for tickets for the celebratory T S Eliot Prize Readings in the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank on Sunday 23 January. 

The PBS also hopes to encourage the setting-up of new poetry reading groups. Pam Johnson’s article on the site shows how to go about it and describes how her own group enjoyed reading last year’s shortlist. 

The T S Eliot Prize

The winner of the 2010 T S Eliot Prize will be announced at the award ceremony on Monday 24 January 2011, when Mrs Valerie Eliot will present the winner with a cheque for £15,000.  

The four Poetry Book Society Choices from 2010 are automatically shortlisted for the Prize. This means we already know that this year’s shortlist will include White Egrets by Derek Walcott, Seeing Stars by Simon Armitage, Human Chain by Seamus Heaney and The Mirabelles by Annie Freud.

The T S Eliot Prize was inaugurated in 1993 to celebrate the Poetry Book Society's 40th birthday, and to honour its founding poet. Now in its eighteenth year, the T S Eliot Prize is the ‘world’s top poetry award’ (Louise Jury, The Irish Independent). The Prize is awarded annually to the writer of the best new poetry collection published in the UK or Ireland. It is unique as it is always judged by a panel of established poets and it has been described by Sir Andrew Motion as ‘the Prize most poets want to win’. Last year’s winner was Philip Gross, for his collection The Water Table (Bloodaxe). 

For further information please contact: Dave Isaac or Chris Holifield at the Poetry Book Society tel 020 7831 7468 emails [log in to unmask] and [log in to unmask]





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Trying poetry with the T S Eliot Prize reading groups
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