TS Eliot prize announces a ‘shapeshifting’ shortlist

With a record number of entries, half of the ten shortlisted books are debut collections that the judges describe as ‘unflinching in their explorations of love and grief, brutality and desire’

Five debut collections are among the shortlist for this year’s TS Eliot prize for best new poetry collection, which saw a record number of submissions.

Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Mark Pajak, James Conor Patterson, Denise Saul and Yomi Sode all make the list for the £25,000 prize.

They are joined by Philip Gross, who won the prize in 2009, Fiona Benson, Jemma Borg, Anthony Joseph and Zaffar Kunial.

Chair of judges Jean Sprackland said the shortlist consisted of books that “thrilled, surprised, and struck us to the heart”.

Sprackland, who was joined on the judging panel by 2021 Costa winner Hannah Lowe and 2019 TS Eliot prize winner Roger Robinson, said the record-breaking number of entries for this year’s prize – 201 – was a “reminder that far from being silenced by crisis poets rise to meet it through language”.