MEET THE SELECTORS
Every quarter our expert team of poet selectors read hundreds of poetry books and pamphlets, submitted in an open call to all publishers big and small. They choose the very best new poetry books to award the PBS Selections and deliver to our members across the globe.
VICTORIA KENNEFICK
BOOK SELECTOR
Started with Spring 2025 Books
Victoria Kennefick's debut collection, Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet Press, 2021), won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize and the Dalkey Book Festival Emerging Writer of the Year Award. It was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Costa Poetry Book Award, Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and the Butler Literary Prize. A UCD/Arts Council of Ireland Writer-in-Residence 2023 and Poet-in-Residence at the Yeats Society
Sligo 2022-2023, Victoria is now Cork County Council Writer-in-Residence 2024.
Her second collection, Egg/Shell (Carcanet Press, 2024) was a PBS Choice for Spring 2024 and BBC Poetry Extra Book of the Month for March.
Fred D'Aguiar
BOOK SELECTOR
Started Spring 2026 Books
Fred D'Aguiar's fourth and seventh poetry collections, Continental Shelf (Carcanet, 2009) and Letters to America (Carcanet, UK, 2020) were Poetry Book Society Choices. For the Unnamed (Carcanet, 2023) is his most recent poetry book, along with a pamphlet, Arboretum for the Hunted (Arc, 2023). His novels include, Children of Paradise (HarperCollins, US, 2015; Granta, UK) about Jonestown, Guyana. He has written plays for stage and radio. His memoir of 2020, titled, Year of Plagues was published by HarperCollins, US and Carcanet, UK. His essays have appeared in Harper’s, The TLS, Wasafiri, Poetry Birmingham,
Poetry London, Best American Essays and The Writer’s Chronicle. He was awarded the Guyana Prize for Poetry and for fiction, and a Cholmondeley award. The Longest Memory won the Whitbread First Novel Prize and the David Higham prizes. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Born in London of Guyanese parents and brought up in Guyana, he returned to the UK for his secondary and tertiary education. He was the Judith E Wilson Fellow at Cambridge, and Northern Arts Literary Fellow at Newcastle and Durham Universities. He moved to the US in the 90s. Currently, he teaches at UCLA where he is Professor of English.
LEO BOIX
Started with Spring 2026 Books
Leo Boix is a bilingual Latinx poet, born in Argentina and now based in the UK. His second collection, Southernmost: Sonnets, was released in June 2025 by Chatto & Windus. His debut English collection, Ballad of a Happy Immigrant(Chatto & Windus, 2021), was a Poetry Book Society Wild Card Choice. A passionate advocate for queer and Latin American literature, Boix is the editor and lead translator of Hemisferio Cuir: An Anthology of Young Queer Latin American Poetry (Fourteen Publishing)—a groundbreaking bilingual collection spotlighting bold, emerging voices across the continent. His translation work spans a constellation of celebrated Latin American poets, including Diana Bellessi, José Watanabe, Cecilia Vicuña, Oscar David López, Jorge Eduardo Eielson, Liliana Ancalao, Pablo Jofré, and Ricardo Zelarayán. Boix’s own poetry features widely in anthologies such as The Forward Book of Poetry, Ten: Poets of the New Generation (Bloodaxe), 100 Queer Poems (Vintage), 100 Poems to Save the Earth (Seren), Un Nuevo Sol: British Latinx
Writers (flipped eye), Islands Are But Mountains (Platypus Press), The Best New British and Irish Poets (BlackSpring), and Até Mais/Until More: An Anthology of Latinx Futurisms (Deep Vellum), among others. His work has appeared in national and international journals, including POETRY, PN Review, The Poetry Review and Letra Libres. A fellow of The Complete Works program, Boix co-directs Un Nuevo Sol, a national Arts Council England initiative nurturing UK-based Latinx writers. He also serves on the board of Magma Poetry and the advisory board of the Poetry Translation Centre. His accolades include the Bart Wolffe Poetry Prize, the Keats-Shelley Prize, a PEN Award, and support from The Society of Authors’ Foundation and K. Blundell Trust.
Ellora Sutton
PAMPHLET SELECTOR
Starting Winter 2026
Ellora Sutton is a poet based in Hampshire, UK. Her pamphlets include Artisanal Slush (Verve, 2023) and Antonyms for Burial (Fourteen Poems, 2022), the latter of which was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. Her debut collection, Little Bitch (Verve, 2026) was described by Rachel Long as “Sharp, tender, hilarious […] a marvel!” Ellora is researching a PhD in English at Northeastern University London, using poetry to explore museums as walkable urban spaces.
Troy Cabida
PAMPHLET SELECTOR
Starting Winter 2026
Troy Cabida is the author of Neon Manila (2025), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. His pamphlets include War Dove (2020) and Symmetric of Bone: poems after Elsa Peretti (2024), a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. A Barbican Young Poets alum, Troy currently works as co-editor for fourteen poems and library assistant for the National Poetry Library.
ARJI MANUELPILLAI
PODCAST HOST
Arji Manuelpillai is a poet, performer and creative facilitator based in London. His poetry has appeared in magazines including Poetry Wales, The Rialto and Bath Magg, and his debut pamphlet, Mutton Rolls, was published with Out-Spoken Press. Arji was shortlisted for the Out-Spoken Prize, the Live Canon Prize, the National Poetry Prize and was runner-up in the Robert Graves Prize. He is a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen and London Stanza, received an Arts Council England award to develop his creative practice, and worked with Hannah Lowe as part of the Jerwood Arvon Mentoring Programme. Arji’s debut collection Improvised Explosive Device is due out in October with Penned in the Margins.
MEET OUR REVIEWERS
SHASH TREVETT
PBS Bulletin Reviewer since 2021
Shash Trevett is a poet and translator of Tamil poetry into English. Her collection The Naming of Names was published by Smith|Doorstop (2024). She is a Ledbury Critic and a Trustee of Modern Poetry in Translation.
DAVE COATES
PBS Bulletin Reviewer since 2021
Dave Coates is a critic and essayist based in Edinburgh. He was a co-organiser of the Ledbury Critics Programme, and his writing has appeared in Poetry Review, Poetry London, The Stinging Fly, Extra Teeth, catflap, spamzine and many other magazines. He has been a reviewer for the PBS Bulletin since 2021.
TAYIBA SULAIMAN
Writing Squad Reviewer
Tayiba Sulaiman is a writer and translator from Manchester. Her work has recently appeared in Prospect Magazine, World of Interiors and PEN Transmissions.
JENNY DANES
Writing Squad Reviewer
JENNY DANES is a poet and facilitator whose work has appeared in Poetry Wales, The Rialto, Magma, Under the Radar, Basket, and bath magg. In 2016 she won The Poetry Business’ New Poets Prize, and her pamphlet Gaps was published by Smith|Doorstop. Find out more at www.jennydanes.co.uk.
BETH DAVIES
Writing Squad Reviewer
Beth Davies is the current Sheffield Poet Laureate 2024-26. Her debut pamphlet, The Pretence of Understanding, was published by The Poetry Business in 2023 after winning the 2022 New Poets Prize. More information about her work can be found at bethdaviespoet.wordpress.com.
JASMINE GRAY
Writing Squad Reviewer
Jasmine Gray is a Northern writer with art criticism and poetry published in Anthropocene, The London Magazine, and The Double Negative. She published two
pamphlets with Broken Sleep Books, Let’s Photograph Girls Enjoying Life (2019) and
Open Your Mouth (2023).
KAYLEIGH JAYSHREE
Writing Squad Reviewer
Kayleigh Jayshree is a poet and reviewer. She is an alumna of the Roundhouse Collective and performed poetry at Glastonbury Festival. She has published reviews in PN Review and Ink Sweat & Tears. Her pamphlet is due out with fourteen poems.
GREGORY KEARNS
Writing Squad Reviewer
Gregory Kearns is based in Liverpool. He was published in Bath Magg, The
Mersey Review and Not About Now and has worked with English Heritage, No Dice
Collective and Tmesis Theatre. He hosts The Poems We Made Along The Way podcast.
ROSE SCHIERIG
Writing Squad Reviewer
Rose Schierig is a poet and MA Writing Poetry student at Newcastle University.
She graduated with a BA in English Literature with Creative Writing from Newcastle University in 2024. You can read her writing @fromrosamund on Instagram.