The Ted Hughes Award is an annual prize given to a living UK poet for new work in poetry. It is awarded each spring in recognition of a work from the previous year.

Background

The award was established in 2009 with the permission of Carol Hughes in honour of British Poet Laureate

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

. Annually the members of the

Poetry Society The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...

and

Poetry Book Society The Poetry Book Society (PBS) was founded in 1953 by T. S. Eliot and friends, including Sir Basil Blackwell, "to propagate the art of poetry". Eric Walter White was secretary from December 1953 until 1971, and was subsequently the society's chair ...

recommend a living UK poet who has completed the newest and most innovative work that year, "highlighting outstanding contributions made by poets to our cultural life." The award seeks to celebrate new work that may fall beyond the conventional realms of poetry, embracing mediums such as music, dance and theatre. The £5,000 prize funded from the annual honorarium that

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...

Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She was the first ...

receives as Laureate from The Queen.Ted Hughes Award, hosted by the Poetry Society

Alice Oswald Alice Priscilla Lyle Oswald (née Keen; born 31 August 1966) is a British poet from Reading, Berkshire. Her work won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2002 and the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2017. In September 2017, she was named as BBC Radio 4's second Poe ...

was the inaugural winner of the 2009 award for her collection ''Weeds and Wildflowers'' (etchings by Jessica Greenman). The 2010 award, selected by judges

Gillian Clarke Gillian Clarke (born 8 June 1937) is a Welsh poet and playwright, who also edits, broadcasts, lectures and translates from Welsh into English. She co-founded Tŷ Newydd, a writers' centre in North Wales. Life Gillian Clarke was born on 8 J ...

, Stephen Raw and

Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English writer. Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against convention. Other novels explore gender pola ...

, was awarded to Kaite O’Reilly for her site specific retelling of

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

’ play, ''

The Persians ''The Persians'' ( grc, Πέρσαι, ''Persai'', Latinised as ''Persae'') is an ancient Greek tragedy written during the Classical period of Ancient Greece by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. It is the second and only surviving part of a now other ...

'' (first produced in 472 BCE). Three other poets were short-listed. Christopher Reid worked with director

Niall MacCormick Niall MacCormick is a Scottish film and television director. His credits include the feature-length comedy-drama ''The Long Walk to Finchley'', ''Firewall'' (the second feature-length episode of '' Wallander''), and ''The Song of Lunch'' (starrin ...

to adapt his narrative poem ''

The Song of Lunch ''The Song of Lunch'' is a British 2010 television adaptation of Christopher Reid's poem of the same name. It was directed by Niall MacCormick and stars Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson. Screened on 9 October 2010 during National Poetry Month, t ...

'' into a 50-minute BBC2 film. David Swann's ''The Privilege of Rain'' (published by Waterloo Press, with wood-cuts by Clare Dunne), is a collection compiled following a year as Writer in Residence at

HMP Nottingham HM Prison Nottingham is a Category B men's prison, located in the Sherwood area of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. History The history of the prison stretches back to 1890, when i ...

(prison). Katharine Towers' ''The Floating Man'' is a debut collection published by Picador. The 2011 award went to Lavinia Greenlaw won the prize for sound piece '' Audio Obscura''. Shortlisted were Julia Copus for ''Ghost Lines'', Robert Crawford for ''Simonides'', Andrew Motion for ''Laurels and Donkeys'' and Christopher ''Reid for Airs and Ditties of No Man’s Land''. The 2012 award, selected by judges Cornelia Parker, Ian Duhig and Maura Dooley, went to

Kae Tempest Kae Tempest (formerly Kate Tempest; born 22 December 1985) is an English spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist and playwright. At the age of 16, Tempest was accepted into the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in ...

for their work ''Brand New Ancients''."[Kae] Tempest wins Ted Hughes poetry prize for 'spoken story'", ''Guardian'', 27 March 2013
/ref> Shortlisted were

Colette Bryce Colette Bryce is a poet, freelance writer, and editor. She was a Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Dundee from 2003 to 2005, and a North East Literary Fellow at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne from 2005 to 2007. She was the ...

Roy Fisher Roy Fisher (11 June 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English poet and jazz pianist. His poetry shows an openness to both European and American modernist influences, while remaining grounded in the experience of living in the English Midlands. ...

Ruth Padel Ruth Sophia Padel FRSL FZS is a British poet, novelist and non-fiction author, known for her poetic explorations of migration, both animal and human, and her involvement with classical music, wildlife conservation and Greece, ancient and modern. ...

, Mario Petrucci,

Denise Riley Denise Riley (born 1948, Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is ...

and Tamar Yoseloff. The 2013 award went to Maggie Sawkins for ''Zones of Avoidance'', a live production featuring multimedia written and performed by Sawkins and directed by Mark Hewitt. The 2014 award went to

Sir Andrew Motion Sir Andrew Motion (born 26 October 1952) is an English poet, novelist, and biographer, who was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009. During the period of his laureateship, Motion founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and audio reco ...

for his radio programme ''Coming Home''. The production featured poetry by Motion based on recordings he made of British soldiers returning from the wars in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. The 2015 award was won by David Morley for his selected poems ''The Invisible Gift''. The 2016 award was won by Hollie McNish for her poetic memoir ''Nobody Told Me''.

Winners

*2009:

for ''Weeds and Wildflowers'' (etchings by Jessica Greenman) *2010: Kaite O’Reilly for ''

'' *2011: Lavinia Greenlaw for ''Audio Obscura'' *2012:

for ''Brand New Ancients'' *2013: Maggie Sawkins for ''Zones of Avoidance'' *2014:

for ''Coming Home'' *2015: David Morley for ''The Invisible Gift: Selected Poems'' *2016: Hollie McNish for ''Nobody Told Me'' *2017:

Jay Bernard Jay Bernard may refer to: *Jay Bernard (writer) Jay Bernard (born 1988), FRSL, is a British writer, artist, film programmer, and activist from London, UK. Bernard has been a programmer at BFI Flare since 2014, co-editor of ''Oxford Poetry'', an ...

for ''Surge: Side A'' *2018:

Raymond Antrobus Raymond Antrobus is a British poet, educator and writer, who has been performing poetry since 2007. In March 2019 he won the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry.British poetry awards Ted Hughes