Philip Gross wins T S Eliot Prize

19.01.10 Katie Allen in The Bookseller

A "dream-like" collection of poetry by Glamorgan University professor Philip Gross has won the £15,000 2009 T S Eliot Prize for poetry.

Gross' The Water Table, published by Bloodaxe, scooped the prize at a ceremony this evening (18th January). He beat established names such as Fred D'Aguiar and George Szirtes.

The T S Eliot Prize for Poetry was inaugurated in 1993 to celebrate the Poetry Book Society's 40th birthday and honour its founding poet.

Chair Simon Armitage said: "Gross takes us from Great Flood to subtly invoked concerns for our watery planet; this is a mature and determined book, dream-like in places, but dealing ultimately with real questions of human existence."

Each of the shortlisted poets also received £1,000 each.

The shortlist in full:

Eiléan Ní Chuilleánain The Sun-fish (Gallery)
Fred D'Aguiar Continental Shelf (Carcanet)
Jane Draycott Over (Carcanet)
Philip Gross The Water Table (Bloodaxe)
Sinéad Morrissey Through the Square Window (Carcanet)
Sharon Olds One Secret Thing (Cape)
Alice Oswald Weeds & Wild Flowers (Faber)
Christopher Reid A Scattering (Areté)
George Szirtes The Burning of the Books and Other Poems (Bloodaxe)
Hugo Williams West End Final (Faber)