Picador Poetry Prize

 

The deadline for the Picador Poetry prize has now closed.

 

About the Prize

 

The Picador Poetry Prize will recognize and publish the best new, previously unpublished poetry in the UK. It will be awarded for a representative selection of a poet's work, rather than a single poem.


Why we're doing it

 

Since it began in 1997, Picador Poetry has established itself as one of the leading poetry imprints in the UK, and the roll-call of Picador authors includes many of the best-known names in British and American verse. The Picador Poetry Prize aims to encourage unpublished poets, unearth new talent, and bring exciting new writing to a wider audience.

 
What you can win

 

The winning poet will be offered a small-but-perfectly-formed publisher's advance, and will have their first collection edited by Don Paterson, Picador's Poetry Editor. Their book will then be published on the award-winning Picador Poetry list, alongside some of the finest contemporary poets in the English language.

 

 

Judging Panel


Don Paterson

Don Paterson (Chairman of Judges) was born in Dundee in 1963. He is the author of several volumes of poetry, including Landing Light (2003) and Rain (2009); his poetry has won a number of awards, including the Geoffrey Faber Award, Whitbread Poetry Prize and the Forward Prize, and the T. S. Eliot Prize on two occasions. He teaches poetry at the University of St Andrews, and has been Poetry Editor at Picador since 1997.

Jackie Kay

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. She is a poet, playwright, novelist and writer of short stories and has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. Her novel Trumpet won the Guardian Fiction Prize, and she has published two collections of stories with Picador, Why Don’t You Stop Talking and Wish I Was Here. She teaches at Newcastle University, and lives in Manchester. Her memoir, Red Dust Road, will be published by Picador in June 2010.

John Stammers

John Stammers' latest collection is Interior Night, published by Picador. He read philosophy at King’s College London and is an Associate of King’s College. His first collection, Panoramic Lounge-bar, was awarded the Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2001 and shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award 2001. His second collection, Stolen Love Behaviour, was a Poetry Book Society Choice. He was Judith E. Wilson Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He is a creative writing tutor and freelance writer. He lives in Hampstead, London, with his wife and their two sons.

Sarah Crown

Sarah Crown is the Guardian's online literary editor. She reviews poetry regularly for the Guardian Review and Poetry Review, and is a trustee of Poetry London. She is a former judge of the Forward Prizes for Poetry, and the creator of the Guardian's immensely popular poetry workshop.