Poetry collections from Picador poets Carol Ann Duffy, Jackie Kay and Sean O’Brien have all been selected for this year’s Costa Book Awards shortlist.
The judging panel for the poetry category included Sarah Crown, William Fiennes and Sharon Murray.
The judges said of
The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy:
“These tender, fluent, surprising poems feel at once contemporary and alive with the history of poetry.”
Of
Fiere by Jackie Kay they wrote:
“These poems are open-armed and generous, warmly emotional without being sentimental. They welcome you in.”
And they praised Sean O’Brien’s
November:
“The mythic combines with the modern in incantatory poems that thrum with verbal and intellectual energy.”
The Costa Book Awards has five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book - published in the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland.
This year’s Costa Book Awards attracted 568 entries. Winners in the five categories, who each receive £5,000, will be announced on Wednesday 4th January 2012. The overall winner of the Costa Book of the Year 2011 will receive £30,000 and will be selected and announced at the Costa Book Awards ceremony in central London on Tuesday 24th January 2012.
Costa Book Awards