Imlah leads TS Eliot prize shortlist
Mick Imlah's first collection for 20 years is the favourite to win this year's TS Eliot prize for poetry
Alison Flood writing in guardian.co.uk,
Thursday October 30 2008

Mick Imlah is the bookies' favourite to add the TS Eliot prize for poetry to the Forward prize he won earlier this month, after his first collection for 20 years made the shortlist for Britain's richest poetry award. If he were to fulfil Ladbrokes's prediction, he would be only the second poet to pull off this "double" and win both of Britain's top poetry awards, following Sean O'Brien's sweep with The Drowned Book last year.
Imlah's The Lost Leader, which portrays Scottish culture from classical mythology to a Dumfries bus depot, is in the running for the £15,000 prize alongside nine other poetry collections. Imlah was the unanimous choice for the £10,000 Forward prize judges, who described his collection as "quite brilliant".

Read Alison Flood's full piece here.