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Joelle Taylor wins T.S Elliot Poetry Prize

Describes as ‘blazing’, Joelle Taylor wins the T.S Elliot prize for poetry with her collection C+nto & Othered Poems.

The Judges praised the Poet for her ‘vivid collection’, and her exploration of 1990’s butch lesbian culture.

Joelle’s fourth collection has been described as a ‘blazing book of rage and light.’ The panel of judges, inclusing Glyn Maxwell, Caroline Bird and Zaffar Kunial went on to say of the collection ‘ a grand opera of liberation from the shadows of indifference and oppression.”’

C+nto, published by the Westbourne Press, has been described as “one of the most astonishing and original poetry collections of recent years” by Bernardine Evaristo in the New Statesman, and “visionary and powerful” by Hollie McNish.

rom a record 177 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers.

The shortlisted poets are:

Raymond Antrobus, All the Names Given (Picador)
Kayo Chingonyi, A Blood Condition (Chatto & Windus)
Selima Hill, Men Who Feed Pigeons (Bloodaxe)
Victoria Kennefick, Eat Or We Both Starve (Carcanet)
Hannah Lowe, The Kids (Bloodaxe)
Michael Symmons Roberts, Ransom (Cape Poetry)
Daniel Sluman, single window (Nine Arches Press)
Joelle Taylor, C+nto & Othered Poems (The Westbourne Press)
Jack Underwood, A Year in the New Life (Faber)
Kevin Young, Stones (Cape Poetry)

The T.S. Eliot Prize, for the best new poetry collection written in English and published in 2021 in the UK or Ireland, is run by The T.S. Eliot Foundation. It is the most valuable prize in British poetry – the winning poet receives a cheque for £25,000 and the shortlisted poets will be presented with cheques for £1,500.

Congratulations to all shortlisted poets, and of course to Joelle Taylor on her success!