With National Poetry Day falling in Michaelmas Term our Head of English, John Douglas-Field, reflects on the importance of poetry...
"My Michaelmas Term always has a poetic flavour. National Poetry Day falls in early October and, this year, we celebrated the day with the charismatic performer and poet, Luke Wright. He took assembly and worked with L5 and M5, sharing his insights into the poems M5 are studying for IGCSE English Literature.
However, for me, the T.S. Eliot Prize means a continued engagement with poetry until the end of term and beyond. It’s the UK’s richest poetry prize - second only to Booker with prize money of £25,000. 10 collections are shortlisted from around 200 submissions. Many come from well-known publishers like Faber and Penguin, but others come from more exotic presses like Liverpool University’s Pavilion Poetry imprint. Submissions are accepted from poets working on both sides of the Atlantic. Some work with Classical discipline. Others push into the avant garde.
I’ve been working for the Prize for the past seven years, writing reviews of the shortlisted collections for the Prize’s newsletter and website. This means reading and reviewing a book a week for 10 weeks. It’s always an exciting task as you never know what you are going to receive… but you do know that, whatever it is, you are going to have to write about it! This used to make me feel pretty nervous but, having reviewed 70 collections now, I am beginning to relax.
Working for the prize is a real gift to my teaching. Since half term, a group of sixth formers have been reading through the shortlist in an afterschool club, and watching young readers responding to best and brightest stars writing today is both a thrill and a privilege.
If you are interested in dipping into this year’s shortlist, then here’s a link to my reviews.
Do consider joining the T.S. Eliot Foundation’s mailing list. There are still a couple newsletters yet to send and they’re packed with engaging content.
Finally, all 10 of this years shortlisted poets will read at Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, 15 January at 19:00. It’s a great night, hosted by Radio 4’s brilliant Ian McMillan"