Twenty-two writers shared more than £70,000 in prize money on Tuesday night, 15th June 2010, at a reception held at the Cavalry and Guards Club in Piccadilly. The Chair of The Society of Authors, Tom Holland, introduced the awards, which were presented by P.D. James.
Awards ranged from those for first novels - Nadifa Mohamed won the Betty Trask Prize of £10,000, and the McKitterick Prize, for writers over 40, went to Raphael Selbourne - to this year’s Travelling Scholarships, which will enable writers Sam North, Lemn Sissay and Roma Tearne to journey abroad.
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy chose four new Cholmondeley award winners – Gillian Allnutt, Colette Bryce, Gwyneth Lewis and Deryn Rees-Jones, with fellow assessors David Morley, Dennis O’Driscoll and Jo Shapcott, and commented:
‘I’m thrilled that this year’s awards show such a range of talent throughout the UK – the margins truly are the centre of British poetry now.’
Now celebrating fifty famous years, the Eric Gregory Awards went to five young poets under 30, Phil Brown, Matthew Gregory, Sarah Howe, Abigail Parry and Ahren Warner. The five join a prestigious list of 267 poets, which includes Geoffrey Hill (1961), Tom Paulin (1976), Carol Ann Duffy (1984), and this year’s Somerset Maugham winner Jacob Polley (2002).
- The Eric Gregory Award winners will be performing at an event on 16th June at the Betsey Trotwood (pub) on Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3BL, and on Friday 9th July at the Ledbury Poetry Festival (12:45-1:45pm; tel. 0845 458 1743 for tickets).
Historian Tristram Hunt, newly elected MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, was presented with the £5,000 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography by Lady Antonia Fraser.
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- Contact Paula Johnson | 020 7373 6642