Bröntes Dots / Eliot Shortlist – Poetry News Roundup October 4th

This week’s poetry news round up takes a look at the Brontë’s dots and the shortlist for the TS Eliot Poetry Prize.

The Brontë’s Get Their Dots

Nearly 85 years after it was installed, a memorial in London has had the dots added over the surnames of the Brontë sisters. The memorial was originally installed in 1939. However, it is not known why the dots were missed off their names.

The memorial to Charlotte, Emily and Anne was put in place amid the outbreak of WWII. The editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, Sharon Wright, raised the issue with The Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, Dean of Westminster. He arranged for a stonemason to tap the dots in place. These were then painted by the conservator.

Ms Wright spotted the mistake during a research trip to Poets’ Corner. She was surprised that in 85 years she wasn’t the only person who appears to have complained about the missing dots. The timing of the correction means that it is almost exactly 85 years since the memorial was created.

Ms Wright hails from Bradford, not that far from Haworth where the sisters lived. She stated that not only did the sisters deserve their names on the memorial but also to have them spelt correctly. The memorial is sponsored by the Brontë society, who are very pleased with the correction.

Records show that the small rectangular tablet which forms the memorial is located near to those for Charles Dickens and Jane Austen but that there was no formal unveiling ceremony until 19th July 1947.

TS Eliot Prize Shortlist Contains “Strong Strain of Elegy”

The shortlist for the TS Eliot Poetry Prize has been announced and includes the poet Gboyega Odubanjo, for his  debut collection  which was published posthumously. Other poets who have made it to the shortlist include Carl Phillips, Raymond Antrobus, a previous winner and Karen McCarthy Woolf.

Gboyega Odubanjo, a British-Nigerian poet went missing last year following the Shambala music festival. A huge hunt was mounted to find him, but he was discovered dead. He was 27 years of age. His debut collection Adam has been placed on the shortlist.

The annual prize of £25,000 is awarded to the best poetry collection. This must have been published in Ireland or the UK. All of the shortlisted works will receive £1,500.

The judges of this years prize said that the shortlisted poets showcased a wonderful diversity of themes, style, and idiom that embraces trans identity, sport, faith and pop culture. There is a strong strain of elegy running through the shortlisted entries this year a response to the dark events happening in the world at the moment.

The shortlist includes poets who have previously been shortlisted, a poet who has previously won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry and a poet whose work was published posthumously. They are also from a wide diverse range of ethnic backgrounds.

The 10 shortlisted poets will take part in a poetry reading on 12th January and the winner of the prize will be announced the following day.