The T.S. Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme 2011 Launches 1st November
Student writing competition:

Win the chance to be published in emagazine and 2 tickets to the T.S. Eliot Prize Readings and the Award Ceremony

‘A shot in the arm for school poetry’
John Field, Head of English

‘This scheme puts young people right inside the inner workings of the great machine of poetry, in amongst the cogs and gears of creativity and judgement. It makes them part of it.’
Philip Gross, TS Eliot Prize Winner, 2009

emagazine and the Poetry Book Society are once again inviting A Level students to shadow the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry, by discussing poems from each of the shortlisted collections, then writing 500 words in support of their chosen poet.

Why do it?

• A great way to get students reading contemporary writers.
• An opportunity for students to broaden their reading and have something interesting to talk about at a university interview or on a UCAS form
• A chance for students to win a fantastic prize

For suggestions on how to make the scheme go with a swing, see ‘Teaching Notes’.

The competition opens on 1st November, when two poems from each of the shortlisted collections will be available to download from http://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/projects/15

Stop Press

Alice Oswald and John Kinsella have withdrawn their books from the T S Eliot Prize shortlist to protest about the new sponsor of the Prize, Aurum. Their poems have now been taken down from the PBS site and they are no longer part of the Shadowing Scheme. There are now just 8 poets on the voting list.

We would like to reassure those students and teachers who have already considered Alice Oswald and John Kinsella as part of the Shadowing Scheme that we will give full consideration to your entries, alongside others, and you could still be selected as the winner. For those teachers and students who have not yet voted, or written entries for the individual writing competition, please could we ask you to remove Alice Oswald and John Kinsella from the selection and ask students to write about other poets.