Jason Allen-Paisant has been announced as the winner of the prestigious T. S. Eliot Prize 2023. His winning work, “Self-Portrait as Othello,” published by Carcanet Press, is his second collection and has been recognised for its remarkable depth and creativity. In his acceptance speech, he talked against the war in Gaza.
Contemporary poetry with style and integrity
The judges of the prize, Paul Muldoon (Chair), Sasha Dugdale, and Denise Saul, praised Allen-Paisant’s collection in glowing terms. “Self-Portrait as Othello is a book with large ambitions that are met with great imaginative capacity, freshness and technical flair. As the title would suggest, the poetry is delivered with theatricality and in a range of voices and registers, across geographies and eras. It takes real nerve to pull off a work like this with such style and integrity. We are confident that Self-Portrait as Othello is a book to which readers will return for many years,” they stated.
The T. S. Eliot Prize 2023 Shortlist, selected from 186 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers, featured a diverse group of poets, including a former winner, two previously shortlisted poets, two debuts, and two second collections, hailing from the UK, Ireland, Jamaica, Hong Kong, and the USA.
Read: National Book Awards: winners condemn Gaza war
Allen-Paisant, a Jamaican writer and academic, serves as a senior lecturer in Critical Theory and Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. His literary prowess is already well-established, with his first collection, “Thinking with Trees” (Carcanet Press, 2021), winning the 2022 OCM Bocas Prize for poetry. His upcoming non-fiction book, “Scanning the Bush,” is set to be published by Hutchinson Heinemann later this year. He resides in Leeds.
The 2023 T. S. Eliot Prize award ceremony
The announcement of Allen-Paisant as the T. S. Eliot Prize 2023 winner was made on Monday, 15 January, at a ceremony held at the Wallace Collection in London. The day before, the Royal Festival Hall in London hosted readings by the shortlisted poets, marking the largest annual poetry event in the UK. An audio version of these readings will soon be available on the T. S. Eliot Prize YouTube channel.
Accepting the award, the recipient alluded to the Gaza War, which concerned him over the past few months.
The TS Eliot Prize 2023 shortlist:
- More Sky by Joe Carrick-Varty
- A Change in the Air by Jane Clarke
- Standing in the Forest of Being Alive by Katie Faris
- The Ink Cloud Reader by Kit Fan
- School of Instructions by Ishion Hutchinson
- Hyena! by Fran Lock
- The Map of the World by Eilean Ni Chuilleanain
- Balladz by Sharon Olds
- I Think We’re Alone Now by Abigail Parry
In recognition of his remarkable achievement, Allen-Paisant will receive a prize of £25,000. Each poet shortlisted for this prestigious award will also receive £1,500, celebrating their significant contributions to the landscape of contemporary poetry.