Emeritus Professor and Scotland’s Poet Laureate, Edwin Morgan, has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize for the best new collection of verse in English.

Considered the UK’s most prestigious poetry accolade, the T S Eliot Prize is the only poetry prize to be judged solely by established poets and is the richest award in British poetry with a top prize of £15,000.

Morgan’s shortlisted collection, A Book of Lives, includes poems on cancer and homosexual love, verse written to mark specific events including the opening of the Scottish Parliament, a history of the world from 20 billion BC to AD2300 and a set of songs for the rock group Idlewild.

Peter Porter, who chairs the judging panel, said: "Morgan is one of the most adventurous of poets. A lot of people talk about poetry as though it's all a matter of feeling. It's a matter of skill and technical facility and he has enormous technical facility."

As well as A Book of Lives, three other collections published by Carcanet, associated with the University of Glasgow’s Department of English and the celebrated Creative Writing programme, are in the running: Pessimism for Beginners by Sophie Hannah, The Meanest Flower by Mimi Khalvati and Common Prayer by Fiona Sampson.

Professor of Poetry at the University of Glasgow and founder of Carcanet Press, Michael Schmidt, said: “This shortlist honours the achievement of Glasgow’s greatest poet. It also celebrates Glasgow’s place as a centre for literary excellence. Our Creative Writing centre is named after Edwin Morgan. That centre also hosts the major literary journal PN Review and is an editorial office for Carcanet Press, all part of an inspiring literary environment for students and staff alike.”

The prize will be presented by Valerie Eliot, the poet's widow, at the Wallace Collection in London on 14 January 2008.

Notes to editors

For more information please contact Kate Richardson at the University of Glasgow’s Media Relations Office on 0141 330 3683 or email K.Richardson@admin.gla.ac.uk

First published: 2 November 2007

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