Armitage and the Poetry School unveil ‘phenomenal’ Laurel Prize shortlist 

UK poet laureate Simon Armitage and the Poetry School have unveiled the “phenomenal” 2022 shortlist for the Laurel Prize.

Poems by Jemma Borg, Rebecca Hawkes, Steve Ely and more are up for the annual nature and ecopoetry prize, which is funded by Armitage’s honorarium from the Queen and run by the Poetry School. 

This year’s judges—poet Glyn Maxwell, chair Elena Karina Byrne and Tishani Doshi—picked Borg’s Wilder (Pavilion), Ely’s The European Eel (Longbarrow Press), Hawkes’ Meat Lovers (Auckland University Press), Cynthia Miller’s Honorifics (Nine Arches Press) and Linda France’s The Knucklebone Floor (Smokestack Books).

The winner will receive £5,000, while second place will take £2,000 and third place £1,000. There will also be a £500 award for Best First Collection. In addition, each of the winners will receive a commission from the Association for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty to create a poem based on their favourite landscape. 

The ceremony will take place at the Birmingham Hippodrome on 9th September as part of the Contains Strong Language festival. It will be live-streamed.

Arrmitage said: “It’s phenomenal to see another worldwide and world-class selection of books reflecting poetry’s global response to the planet’s precarious environmental situation.”

Sally Carruthers, director of the Poetry School, added: “As ever, it is an honour and privilege to support the battle against climate crisis through some of the planet’s most innovative, inspiring and impactful words on the subject. These collections reach the heart of the issues and thus of us all.’’