The UK Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, and the Poetry School have announced the longlist for the inaugural eco-poetry prize, The Laurel Prize. The prize is funded by Simon Armitage out of the £5,000 honorarium which he receives annually from the Queen, and run by the Poetry School. It is awarded annually for the best published collection of environmental or nature poetry.
The longlist features Sean Borodale's Asylum (Jonathan Cape), Elizabeth-Jane Burnett's Swims (Penned in the Margins), Gillian Clarke's Zoology (Carcanet), Linda France's Reading the Flowers (Arc Publications), Matt Howard's Gall (The Rialto), Richard Osmond's Useful Verses (Pan Macmillan), Colin Simms' Hen Harrier (Shearsman) and recent PBS selections Alice Oswald's Falling Awake (Jonathan Cape), Meryl Pugh's Natural Phenomena (Penned in the Margins), Pascale Petit's Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe Books) and Karen McCarthy Woolf's Seasonal Disturbances (Carcanet).
The prize awards £5,000 (1st prize), £2,000 (2nd prize) and £1,000 (3rd prize). The 2020 longlist was judged by Laureate Simon Armitage and poets Moniza Alvi and Robert Macfarlane. Congratulations to all the longlisted poets and we can't wait to see the final shortlist.
Click on the links above to order the longlisted books with 25% off for PBS Members