The Eric Gregory Awards, for a collection by poets under the age of 30, were founded in 1960 by the late Dr Eric Gregory for the encouragement of young poets.
Winners of the Eric Gregory Awards are invited to a free solo week residency at Thomas Cottage. Part of a historic farmhouse in the Lake District hamlet of Hartsop, the cottage is in a beautiful location in the rising fells just south of Ullswater. The house is generously reserved for poets who have won an Eric Gregory Award, usually in the January and February following their Award.
Winners of the Eric Gregory Awards will also be invited to have a poem, of the winning collection or from other work, published in the summer edition of Poetry London.
The Eric Gregory Awards are closed for submissions.
The 2025 Eric Gregory Award winners
Tom Bailey for Please Do Not Touch or Feed the Horses
Sophia Georghiou for Gloria Trillo
Kaycee Hill for Sonic Inheritance
Oluwaseun Olayiwola for Strange Beach
Katie O’Pray for Apricot
Eric Yip for Exposure
‘Judging for the Eric Gregory Award has been a wonderful experience. The quality and depths of writing made the final decision so difficult, that the gap between longlist and winners was miniscule. The winners showed strength in writing, some deft in their approach, others sang across the page, but all with an amazing technical fortitude. I loved the places I was taken to, the experiences shared and vulnerabilities that were laid on the page. Their stories were alive, inventive and captured me like a painting or sculpture, leaving me sitting in their words long after it had finished.’
— Roy McFarlane, 2025 Eric Gregory Awards judge
If you are interested in buying any of the books shortlisted here, please visit Bookshop.org. A percentage of each sale will go to the Society of Authors Access Fund, providing access grants to help authors attend events, residencies and retreats.
With thanks, the judges of the 2025 Eric Gregory Award:
Caroline Bird
Caroline Bird has seven poetry collections published by Carcanet. Her sixth collection, The Air Year, won the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2020 and was shortlisted for the Polari Prize and the Costa Prize. Her fifth collection, In These Days of Prohibition, was shortlisted for the 2017 TS Eliot Prize and the Ted Hughes Award. A two-time winner of the Foyles Young Poets Award, her first collection Looking Through Letterboxes was published in 2002 when she was 15. She won an Eric Gregory Award in 2002 and was shortlisted for the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2001 and the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2008 and 2010. She was one of the five official poets at the 2012 London Olympics. In 2023, she won a Cholmondeley Award for ‘sustained excellence across a body of work.” Her Selected Poems, Rookie, was published in 2022.
Jasmine Gardosi
Jasmine Gardosi is the Birmingham Poet Laureate and Honorary Doctor of Letters. She is a multiple slam champion, beatboxer, winner of the Out-Spoken Prize for Poetry and winner of the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Performer 2023. Her work exploring identity, LGBTQ issues and mental health has appeared on Button Poetry, at the Tate Modern, Glastonbury Festival, Symphony Hall and BBC. She was featured on Sky Arts’ BAFTA-winning show Life & Rhymes and her poem about the pandemic, filmed on a rollercoaster, was broadcast across America on PBS. She has performed and run workshops across Europe, including at Romania’s Transylvania International Spoken Word Festival, and Estonia’s historical, first-ever queer poetry slam for Baltic Pride. She is a previous Writer in Residence at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Poet in Residence at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and BBC Arts Young Creative. Her poetry/beatbox/Celtic dubstep show ‘Dancing To Music You Hate’ explores gender identity and was commissioned by Warwick Arts Centre. After premiering to standing ovations, it won Best Spoken Word Show in the Saboteur Awards and its titular track was performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, broadcast on BBC Four. Following a sold-out show at Symphony Hall, the show toured the UK in the summer of 2023. Jasmine has most recently penned a new rock anthem for Birmingham, “Brummie Steel” which was performed by a mass collective of 300 musicians, commissioned by Misfits Music Foundation. @jasminegardosi jasminegardosi.com
Joesphine Giles
Harry Josephine Giles is from Orkney and lives in Leith. Her verse novel Deep Wheel Orcadia was published by Picador in October 2021 and won the 2022 Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction book of the year. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Stirling. Her show Drone debuted in the Made in Scotland Showcase at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe and toured internationally. Find out more at: www.harryjosephine.com.
Roy McFarlane
Roy McFarlane is a Poet, Writer and former Youth & Community Worker born in Birmingham of Jamaican parentage, spending most of his years living in Wolverhampton and the Black Country and now living in Brighton. He is currently the National Canal Laureate. He’s the former Birmingham Poet Laureate and co-editor of Celebrate Wha? Ten Black British Poets from the Midlands (Smokestack). His three collections are published by Nine Arches Press: Beginning With Your Last Breath and The Healing Next Time (shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award and longlisted for the Jhalak Prize) and his third collection Living by Troubled Waters is out now. He’s a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded a Doctor of Letters by the University of Wolverhampton.
Eric Ngalle Charles
Eric Ngalle Charles is a Cameroonian writer, poet and playwright, and human rights activist based in Wales. A Ph.D. researcher at King’s College London, he was awarded a Creative Wales Award Fellowship in 2017 for his work on the topics of migration, trauma, and memory. His autobiography I, Eric Ngalle: One Man’s Journey Crossing Continents from Africa to Europe (2019) was published by Parthian Books, and recounts his journey to Europe, spending several years in Russia and elsewhere seeking refuge. He was selected as one of Jackie Kay’s best British BAME writers with a unique theatrical voice. He sits on boards at Literature Wales and Aberystwyth Arts Centre and edited Hiraeth Erzolirzoli: A Wales-Cameroon Anthology (2018). The 3 Molas (2020), an anthology about Cameroon and Wales. His poetry Collection Homelands Seren Books (2022) was published in April.
Rosie Miles
Rosie Miles is a poet, scholar, educator and gardener. She was formerly Reader in English Literature at the University of Wolverhampton and won numerous awards for her teaching, including a National Teaching Fellowship. Rosie published Victorian Poetry in Context (Bloomsbury, 2013) and was External Examiner for several university Creative Writing courses and their poetry modules. Rosie has an MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Manchester Metropolitan University and in 2015 published CUTS (HappenStance Press). She has collaborated with visual artists and composers, and has a poem set into King’s Heath Urban Village Square, Birmingham. She was selected to be part of the Dynamo Poets Mentoring Scheme (Arts Council/Nine Arches Press) in 2017. Rosie continues to teach poetry independently, offering online workshops and courses. She has also retrained as a professional gardener and is General Gardener for the Alpine Garden Society, Pershore, alongside running her own gardening business in south Birmingham, where she lives.
2024
- Will Barnard
- Maia Elsner
- William Gee
- Yanita Georgieva
- Nathaniel King
- Francis-Xavier Mukiibi
2023
- Princess Arinola Adegbite for Algorithms of Meaning
- Jay Gao for Imperium
- Mukahang Limbu for Mother of Flip-Flops
- Momtaza Mehri for Bad Diaspora Poems
- Helen Quah for Dog Woman
- Charlotte Shevchenko Knight for food for the dead
2022
- Joe Carrick-Varty for Sky Doc
- Courtney Conrad for Revelations
- Jack Cooper for Break the Nose of Every Beautiful Thing
- Daniella Fearon for Beyond the Monochrome Lens
- Maisie Newman for Our Names Were Oil
- Rhiya Pau for Routes
- Stephanie Sy-Quia for Amnion
2021
- Phoebe Walker
- Michael Askew
- Goboyega Odubanjo
- Kandace Siobahn Walker
- Cynthia Miller
- Milena Williamson
- Dominic Hand
2020
- Amina Jama
- Kadish Morris
- Natalie Linh Bolderston
- Roseanne Watt
- Susanah Dickey
2019
- Mary Jean Chan
- Sophie Collins
- Seán Hewitt
- Dominic Leonard
- James Conor Patterson
- Phoebe Stuckes
2018
- Zohar Atkins
- Victoria Adukwei Bulley
- Jenna Clake
- Joseph Eastell
- Annie Katchinska
- Ali Lewis/ Stephen Sexton
2017
- Rachael Allen
- Isabel Galleymore
- Daisy Lafarge
- Richard O’Brien
- Richard Osmond
- Mark Pajak
2016
- Sam Buchan-Watts
- Dom Bury
- Jen Campbell
- Alex MacDonald
- Andrew McMillan
2015
- Rowan Evans
- Miriam Nash
- Padraig Regan
- Stewart Sanderson
- Andrew Wynn Owen
2014
- Sophie Collins
- Emily Hasler (Lorrie Scott)
- Martha Sprackland
- Chloe Stopa-Hunt
- David Tait
2013
- John Clegg
- Kate Gething-Smith
- Matt Haw
- Oli Hazzard
2012
- Sophie Baker
- Joey Connolly
- Holly Corfield Carr
- Caleb Klaces
- Rachael Madeleine Nicholas
- Phoebe Power
- Jon Stone
2011
- Niall Campbell
- Tom Chivers
- Holly Hopkins
- Martin Jackson
- Kim Moore
2010
- Phil Brown
- Matthew Gregory
- Sarah Howe
- Abigail Parry
- Ahren Warner
2009
- Liz Berry
- James Brookes
- Swithun Cooper
- Alex McRae
- Sam Riviere
2008
- Emily Berry
- Rhiannon Hooson
- James Midgley
- Adam O’Riordan
- Heather Phillipson
2007
- Rachel Curzon
- Miriam Gamble
- Michael McKimm
- Helen Mort
- Jack Underwood
2006
- Fiona Benson
- Retta Bowen
- Frances Leviston
- Jonathan Morley
- Eoghan Walls
2005
- Melanie Challenger
- Carolyn Jess
- Luke Kennard
- Toby Martinez De Las Rivas
2004
- Nick Laird
- Elizabeth Manuel
- Abi Curtis
- Sophie Mayer
- Saradha Soobrayen
2003
- Jen Hadfield
- Zoe Brigley
- Paul Batchelor
- Olivia Cole
- Sasha Dugdale
- Anna Woodford
2002
- Caroline Bird
- Christopher James
- Jacob Polley
- Luke Heeley
- Judith Lal
- David Leonard Briggs
- Eleanor Rees
- Kathryn Simmonds
2001
- Leontia Flynn
- Thomas Warner
- Tishani Doshi
- Patrick Mackie
- Kathryn Gray
- Sally Read
2000
- Eleanor Margolies
- Antony Rowland
- Antony Dunn
- Karen Goodwin
- Clare Pollard
1999
- Ross Cogan
- Matthew Hollis
- Helen Ivory
- Andrew Pidoux
- Owen Sheers
- Dan Wyke
1998
- Mark Goodwin
- Joanne Limburg
- Patrick McGuinness
- Kona Macphee
- Esther Morgan
- Christiania Whitehead
- Frances Williams
1997
- Matthew Clegg
- Sarah Corbett
- Polly Clark
- Tim Kendal
- Graham Nelson
- Matthew Welton
1996
- Sue Butler
- Cathy Cullis
- Jane Griffiths
- Jane Holland
- Chris Jones
- Sinead Morrissey
- Kate Thomas
1995
- Colette Bryce
- Sophie Hannah
- Tobias Hill
- Mark Wormald
1994
- Julia Copus
- Alice Oswald
- Steven Blyth
- Kate Clanchy
- Giles Goodland
1993
- Eleanor Brown
- Joel Lane
- Deryn Rees-Jones
- Sean Boustead
- Tracey Herd
- Angela McSeveney
1992
- Jill Dawson
- Hugh Dunkerley
- Christopher Greenhalgh
- Marita Maddah
- Stuart Paterson
- Stuart Pickford
1991
- Roddy Lumsden
- Glyn Maxwell
- Stephen Smith
- Wayne Burrows
- Jackie Kay
1990
- Nicholas Drake
- Maggie Hannan
- William Park
- Jonathan Davidson
- Lavinia Greenlaw
- Don Paterson
- John Wells
1989
- Gerard Woodward
- David Morley
- Katrina Porteous
- Paul Henry
1988
- Michael Symmons Roberts
- Gwyneth Lewis
- Adrian Blackledge
- Simon Armitage
- Robert Crawford
1987
- Peter McDonald
- Maura Dooley
- Stephen Knight
- Steve Anthony
- Jill Maughan
- Paul Munden
1986
- Mick North
- Lachlan Mackinnon
- Oliver Reynolds
- Stephen Romer
1985
- Graham Mort
- Adam Thorpe
- Pippa Little
- James Harpur
- Simon North
- Julian May
1984
- Martyn Crucefix
- Mick Imlah
- Jamie McKendrick
- Bill Smith
- Carol Ann Duffy
- Christopher Meredith
- Peter Armstrong
- Iain Bamforth
1983
- Martin Stokes
- Hilary Davies
- Michael O’Neill
- Lisa St Aubin De Teran
- Deidre Shanahan
1982
- Steve Ellis
- Jeremy Reed
- Alison Brackenbury
- Neil Astley
- Chris O’Neill
- Joseph Bristow
- John Gibbens
- James Lasdun
1981
- Alan Jenkins
- Simon Rae
- Marion Lomax
- Philip Gross
- Kathleen Jamie
- Mark Abley
- Roger Crowley
- Ian Gregson
1980
- Robert Minhinnick
- Michael Hulse
- Blake Morrison
- Medbh McGuckian
1979
- Stuart Henson
- Michael Jenkins
- Alan Hollinghurst
- Sean O’Brien
- Peter Thabit Jones
- James Lindesay
- Walter Perrie
- Brian Moses
1978
- Ciaran Carson
- Peter Denman
- Christopher Reid
- Paul Wilkins
- Martyn A. Ford
- James Sutherland-Smith
1977
- Tony Flynn
- Michael Vince
- David Cooke
- Douglas Marshall
- Melissa Murray
1976
- Stewart Brown
- Valerie Gillies
- Paul Groves
- Paul Hyland
- Nigel Jenkins
- Andrew Motion
- Tom Paulin
- William Peskett
1975
- John Birtwhistle
- Duncan Bush
- Val Warner
- Philip Holmes
- Peter Cash
- Alasdair Paterson
1974
- Duncan Forbes
- Roger Garfitt
- Robin Hamilton
- Frank Ormsby
- Penelope Shuttle
1973
- John Beynon
- Ian Caws
- James Fenton
- Keith Harris
- David Howarth
- Philip Pacey
1972
- Tony Curtis
- Richard Burns
- Brian Oxley
- Andrew Greig
- Robin Lee
- Paul Muldoon
1971
- Martin Booth
- Florence Bull
- John Pook
- D.M. Warman
- John Welch
1970
- Helen Frye
- Paul Mills
- John Mole
- Brian Morse
- Alan Perry
- Richard Tibbitts
1969
- Gavin Bantock
- Jeremy Hooker
- Jenny King
- Neil Powell
- Landeg E. White
1968
- James Aitchison
- Douglas Dunn
- Brian Jones
1967
- Angus Calder
- Marcus Cumberlege
- David Harsent
- David Selzer
- Brian Patten
1966
- Robin Fulton
- Seamus Heaney
- Hugo Williams
1965
- John Fuller
- Derek Mahon
- Michael Longley
- Norman Talbot
1964
- Robert Nye
- Ken Smith
- Jean Symons
- Ted Walker
1963
- Ian Hamilton
- Stewart Conn
- Peter Griffith
- David Wevill
1962
- Donald Thomas
- James Simmons
- Brian Johnson
- Jenny Joseph
1961
- Adrian Mitchell
- Geoffrey Hill
1960
- Christopher Levenson
Dr. Eric Craven Gregory
Dr. Eric Gregory, also known as Peter Gregory, (6 October 1887–1959) was a publisher and benefactor of modern art and artists. Gregory was the director of the Burlington Magazine and chairman of art publishers Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd. and the Ganymed Press. Before the war he mixed in Surrealist circles, publishing their work. In 1946 he was a member of the organising committee of the Museum of Modern Art. Together with Peter Watson, Herbert Read and Roland Penrose, he founded the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), generously assisting its financing, and he was on its management committee. He funded some original and successful resident fellowships at Leeds University for young artists, musicians and poets. In his will, his left a few of his collection of pictures and sculptures to the Tate Gallery, money to be invested in trust for the benefit of the ICA, and the residue to form a trust fund to provide the Eric Gregory Awards for the benefit and encouragement of young British poets.
Charity number 261451