Iona Singleton, 6th form student at South Wilts Grammar School, has won the T S Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme competition for her eloquent and personal response to Philip Gross’s winning collection, The Water Table. Iona attended the T S Eliot Prize award ceremony in London yesterday where she was presented with her prizes – including signed copies of all the shortlisted collections, membership of the Poetry Book Society and a subscription to emagazine – by the Minister for Culture and Tourism, Margaret Hodge. She was also introduced to Philip Gross following the announcement last night that he was the winner of the 2009 T S Eliot Prize.
The T S Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme reflects Eliot's own commitment to encouraging young people to enjoy poetry by engaging A Level students with the T S Eliot Prize judging process. Run by the Poetry Book Society in partnership with emagazine, an A Level magazine published by the English and Media Centre, it comprises a poll to find out which poet the students think should win the 2009 T S Eliot Prize and a competition for the best individual student’s rationale for their choice of winner.
In the student poll Alice Oswald’s Weeds and Wild Flowers received the most votes from sixth form students. Iona Singleton, however, favoured The Water Table with its depiction of the River Severn in all its watery guises.
To read Iona's rationale for Philip Gross' The Water Table, click here.
Shadowing Scheme Winner Iona Singleton and Philip Gross.
New Teachers’ Prize
This year also saw the introduction of a new Teachers’ Prize, won by Jane Bluett from Bilborough College, Nottingham, for her impassioned and lively review of Sharon Olds’s One Secret Thing. A student from Bilborough College, Emily Cotterill, also impressed with her rationale in support of The Burning of the Books by George Szirtes, for which she was awarded one of two runner-up prizes. The second runner-up was Lorna Oakley from Porthcawl Comprehensive School, South Wales, for her accomplished rationale in support of Alice Oswald’s Weeds and Wild Flowers.
To read Jane's review, click here.
Teachers' Prize winner Jane Bluett receives her prize from Margaret Hodge
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