This week in our poetry news round up we look at somepreviously unpublished poetry, the shortlist for the TS Eliot Poetry Prize and a Borders poet who has been shortlisted for the Scotland National Book Awards.
Seamus Heaney – Previously Unpublished Poems to be Published
A new book containing poems written by Seamus Heaney, internationally recognised with some calling him the most influential Irish poet after WB Yeats is to be published shortly.
The book which has been described as representing all of Heaney’s writing life in one volume, will bring together both published poems and those that have previously never been seen for the first time. The Seamus Heaney Centre which is located at Belfast’s Queens University is excited about this edition stating it will be the “first place where everything is all together”.
In total the collection, titled The Poems of Seamus Heaney, will include everyone of the collections written by the late poets as well as a number of “uncollected” poems, 25 in total, some of which appeared in magazines under a range of pen names. These uncollected poems were chosen by the Heaney family, and many of them have been housed at the National Library of Ireland since just before the poets death in 2013.
The launch of the new book will be celebrated by at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queens University on 16th October.
TS Eliot Poetry Prize Shortlist Announced
The shortlist for the 2025 TS Eliot Poetry Prize shortlist which the judges believe offers “something for everyone” has been announced. It includes the names of ten poets who are being considered for the £25,000 award.
The prize which is the most prestigious award in the UK and Ireland for a single volume of poetry features collections from new voices and established names and ranges in subject matter from inheritance to mediations on illness, to exile and explorations of ecological collapse. Prominent names on the shortlist include Tom Paulin and Sarah Howe, who was a winner of the prize in 2015 for her debut “Loop of Jade”. This time she has been nominated with “Foretokens”. This is Paulin’s fourth time on the shortlist, and this is his first collection in a decade. His collection “Namanlagh” has been described as a medication on illness and then recovery, violence, and periods of historical neglect.
This year’s Chair of the judges is the translator and poet Michael Hofmann who praised the incredible range power and suggestiveness that has made it to the shortlist. This year there was a record 177 submissions made to the prize, from 64 publishers.
A reading of the shortlisted works will take place at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 18th January 2026, the winners will be announced on the 19th of January. This year marks the 32nd anniversary of the TS Eliot Poetry Prize.
Scotland National Book Awards Longlisted Borders poet
Bridget Khursheed, a borders poet, has been longlisted for the Scotland National Book Awards with her collection Exact Colour of Snow.
The longlist was released in September and The Saltires Society who run the awards will be releasing the shortlist next week, with final accolades being announced in November. The awards have been running since 1937 and recognise literary talent from Scotland. In 2014 the poetry category was introduced.
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