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The Poetry Book Society is delighted to announce that Philip Gross has won the 2009 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry with The Water Table, published by Bloodaxe.

The judges of this year’s Prize, Chair Simon Armitage, and fellow-poets Penelope Shuttle and Colette Bryce, reached their decision after months of deliberation and debate. The winner was chosen from a field of ten highly-regarded poets.

Simon Armitage said:

 “A book of great clarity and concentration, continually themed but always lively and alert in its use of language. Gross takes us from Great Flood to subtly invoked concerns for our watery planet; this is a mature and determined book, dream-like in places, but dealing ultimately with real questions of human existence.”

Born in Cornwall in 1952, Philip Gross lived in Bristol and Bath for many years, and now lives in Penarth in South Wales.His previous collections include The Egg of Zero (2006), Mappa Mundi (2003), Changes of Address: Poems 1980-1998 (2001), The Wasting Game (1998) and several collections for children, including Scratch City (1995) and The All-Nite Café (1993). He has recently published I Spy Pinhole Eye, a collaboration with photographer Simon Denison, published by Cinnamon Press. He is also the author of ten highly-praised novels for young people. He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Glamorgan University. The Water Table is published by Bloodaxe.

Simon Armitage formally announced the winner at the T S Eliot Prize award ceremony at the Wallace Collection on Monday 18 th January. Mrs Valerie Eliot presented the winner with a cheque for £15,000 and each shortlisted poet received a cheque for £1,000 in recognition of their achievement in winning a place on the most prestigious shortlist in UK poetry. The Poetry Book Society would like to thank Mrs Eliot for her generosity in providing the prize money.

In the second year of a three-year sponsorship the John S Cohen Foundation sponsored the 2009 T S Eliot Prize for Poetry. The Foundation includes the David Cohen Prize for Literature amongst its portfolio, which covers the arts, education, culture, environment, conservation and heritage.

The T S Eliot Prize is supported by the T S Eliot Foundation.

The ten shortlisted poets receive their cheques.

L-R: Clare Reihill, Eliot Trustee; Valerie Eliot; Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin; Fred D’Aguiar; Chris Holifield, PBS Director; Jane Draycott; Philip Gross; Sinéad Morrissey; Christopher Reid; George Szirtes; Hugo Williams.

Philip Gross receives his prize of £15,000 from Mrs Valerie Eliot.