Poetry Book Society

Congratulations to Flora de Falbe from Twyford Church of England High School, an academy in Ealing, who has won the T S Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme 2012 for her rationale in praise of Kathleen Jamie's collection The Overhaul, which you can read on our website. Julia Copus was the most popular poet on the shortlist according to the student poll.

The Overhaul was one of 10 collections shortlisted for this year's T S Eliot Prize for Poetry, described by The Irish Independent as ‘the world's top poetry award'. Run in partnership with emagazine, the Shadowing Scheme invites students to take part in shadowing the judges of the prize each year to select their own preferred poet ahead of the judges' decision.

The shortlist was announced on 20th October 2012 and a few days later students were invited to download two poems from each of the shortlisted poets' collections. They then had until 15th December to vote for their choice of winner in the student poll and to write a rationale explaining their choice, based on the sample poems.

As part of Flora's prize, she attended the Readings by the shortlisted poets in London's Royal Festival Hall on 13th January 2013. She was then a guest the following evening at the glamorous Award Ceremony held at The Wallace Collection in London where Sharon Olds was announced as the winner of the T S Eliot Prize 2012 for her collection Stag's Leap. Flora was also announced as the winner of the T S Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme and presented with signed copies of all ten shortlisted collections.

As well as having her writing published in emagazine, Flora has also won a year's subscription to emagazine and a year's membership of the Poetry Book Society. In addition, she has won a prize for her school; a year's education membership of the Poetry Book Society.

The judges of the T S Eliot Shortlist 2012 were Carol Ann Duffy (Chair), David Morley and Michael Longley. From the shortlist of 10 below, they chose Sharon Olds as the winner of the T S Eliot Prize 2012.

Stag's Leap Sharon Olds (Cape)
Bee Journal Sean Borodale (Cape)
P L A C E Jorie Graham (Carcanet)
The World's Two Smallest Humans Julia Copus (Faber)
The Dark Film Paul Farley (Picador)
Burying The Wren Deryn Rees-Jones (Seren)
The Death of King Arthur Simon Armitage (Faber)
The Havocs Jacob Polley (Picador)
Ice Gillian Clarke (Carcanet)
The Overhaul Kathleen Jamie (Picador)

To read more about what the scheme means to students and teachers, click here.

Read the winning rationale

T S Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme

T S Eliot Prize 2012

More about the Prize