The Judges

Ali Smith (Chair) was born in Inverness in 1962 and lives in Cambridge.  She is the author of Free Love, Like, Hotel World, Other Stories and Other Stories, The Whole Story and Other Stories, The Accidental, Girl Meets Boy and The First Person and Other Stories, and puts any craft or sullen art in any of this all down to a lifelong love of poetic form.

Jo Shapcott was born in London. Poems from her three award-winning collections, Electroplating the Baby (1988), Phrase Book (1992) and My Life Asleep (1998) are gathered in a volume of selected poems, Her Book (2000). She has won a number of literary prizes including the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Collection, the Forward Prize for Best Collection and the National Poetry Competition (twice). Tender Taxes, her versions of Rilke, were published in 2001.

Richard Price is the Head of Modern British Collections at the British Library and an acclaimed poet and performer. As a curator and co-founder of a small press he has a wide knowledge of UK poetry pamphlets. His poetry collections include Lucky Day and Rays. His poetry website is www.hydrohotel.net.

The Organisations behind the Awards

The Poetry Book Society was set up by T S Eliot and friends in 1953 to support the sales of poetry books. The Poet Selectors choose the best new poetry book of the quarter as the Choice, which is sent to members. There is also a quarterly Pamphlet Choice. It also awards the annual T S Eliot Prize and runs the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf (which holds an annual international children’s poetry competition). It online poetry bookshop, www.poetrybookshoponline.com will have a major relaunch with a new website in March 2010.

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world’s greatest research libraries. Its mission is to advance the world’s knowledge in order to enrich lives. The British Library has extensive collections of poetry in many languages and from all periods up to the present time. As the Legal Deposit for the United Kingdom, the British Library seeks to collect all contemporary poetry pamphlets published in the UK, adding them to the collection forever. In addition, the Library’s manuscripts collections contain drafts and correspondence from Britain’s greatest poets.

The Michael Marks Charitable Trust was established in 1966 by the late Lord Marks, 2nd Baron of Broughton. Since its foundation it has committed over £20m to assist non-profit organisations and charities dedicated to the preservation and promotion of culture and the environment.

Return to Michael Marks Awards 2010