Founded by T S Eliot and friends in 1953, the Poetry Book Society is a unique poetry society, providing information, guidance and discounts on the best contemporary poetry for a wide-ranging community of readers. The PBS is the biggest dedicated poetry bookseller in the UK, and we also run education projects and poetry promotions, such as the Next Generation Poets in 2004.
The Poet Selectors choose the best new poetry collection of the quarter, which is sent to full members as part of their membership. All members also receive the Bulletin, the quarterly review of new poetry, which contains the Selectors’ notes on the Choice and Recommendations and the poets’ comments on their own work. Click here to find out more about the Bulletin.
The PBS awards the prestigious annual T S Eliot Prize for Poetry, described by the Irish Independent as the ‘world’s top poetry award’. The 2006 Prize was won by Seamus Heaney for District and Circle.
The PBS also runs the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf, offering poetry written for 7-11 year-old children to parents, teachers and librarians. The annual CPB National Write-a-Poem Competition for children of the same age is run from its website. Click here to visit the Children's Poetry Bookshelf website.
The PBS also has an online poetry bookstore, Poetry Bookshop Online, which sells all the poetry titles in print in the UK and also the Poetry Archive CDs, featuring one-hour recordings of 90 poets reading their own work. Click here to visit the Poetry Bookshop Online.
Who should join the PBS?
PBS members are people who love poetry. They are readers, writers, students and teachers of poetry; they are publishers and librarians, artists and academics. All they have in common is their interest in the best new poetry. They also enjoy classic poetry and literary fiction, live literature and contemporary art, music, theatre and cinema. The PBS is a community of like-minded poetry lovers and we look forward to welcoming you.
Members' Feedback
'Getting
the quarterly volume is like Christmas four times a year'
- CS, Suffolk
'The fact that I remain a PBS member after 23 years surely
indicates the level of my satisfaction. Long may you flourish!' - BJ, Canada
'It's great to know that the PBS will sort the wheat from the chaff!' -
KM, Mancs
'The PBS is simply indispensable, keeping me in touch with
all the movers and shakers in the poetry world' - AW, London
'I
like the Bulletin very much.I appreciate its being always 'just ahead' of other
mags.' - GS, Herts
'You do a wonderful job, particularly in recommending
the best of modern poetry to read. I am very happy to go along with whatever comes
out of the PBS!' - DH, London
'Poetry is written and read perhaps
more widely than ever before. It would be time-consuming, expensive and bewildering
to be obliged to explore such a vast arena entirely unguided. The PBS provides
such guidance and a wonderfully informed, broad-ranging scheme of reference at
very economical prices' - PC, Germany |
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