Laurel Prize 2023 Longlist and Shortlist

Click here for the 2023 Longlist and Shortlist

‘We are facing the most catastrophic threat to the future of our planet that we have ever encountered.’

Over the course of my ten year Laureateship I want one of the headline projects to be a prize or award that recognises and encourages the resurgence of nature and environmental writing, currently taking place in poetry.

The new wave of nature writing in non-fiction has been well documented over recent years but not enough attention has been paid to a similar move in poetry, with climate crisis and environmental concerns clearly provoking this important strand of work.

I have established The Laurel Prize as an annual award for the best collection of nature or environmental poetry to highlight the climate crisis and raise awareness of the challenges and potential solutions at this critical point in our planet’s life. The Prize will dovetail and partner with The Ginkgo Prize which rewards best single poems.

In celebrating and rewarding this work, the Prize aims to encourage more of it, and to become part of the discourse and awareness about our current environmental predicament.

Building on the success of its inaugural year, the Laurel Prize will now become an international award for nature poetry written in English. This is also a way of recognising the global importance of environmentalism, and drawing together concerned voices from across the planet.

I will donate my annual Laureate Honorarium of £5,000 towards the prize money each year.

Simon Armitage., Poet Laureate

The Laurel Prize

First Prize – £5,000
Second Prize – £2,000
Third Prize – £1,000
Prize for Best First Collection – £500
Prize for Best International First Collection – £500
(Sponsored by The Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry)

Our Judges

Pascale Petit
Pascale Petit2023 Chair & Poet

Pascale Petit was born in Paris and lives in Cornwall. She is of French, Welsh, and Indian heritage. Her eighth collection of poetry, Tiger Girl, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and for Wales Book of the Year. Her seventh, Mama Amazonica, won the inaugural Laurel Prize, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. Four previous collections were shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Pascale was a co-founder of The Poetry School.

Reeta Chakrabarti is a journalist and presenter for BBC News. She presents the One, Six, and Ten O’Clock News on BBC1, and combines being a studio anchor with reporting from home and abroad. Prior to this, Reeta was a correspondent covering politics, home affairs, education, and community affairs. Reeta is an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford; University College London; and the University of East London. She has an honorary doctorate from York St John University, and an honorary degree from Bath Spa University. Since March 2020 she has been Chancellor of York St John. Reeta was born in London, but brought up in Birmingham and lived in India as a teenager, and in France for a year as a student. She studied English and French at Oxford University. She was a judge for the 2021 David Cohen Prize for Literature, which was won by the novelist Colm Toibin. She was chair of judges for the 2022 Costa Book of the Year award, which went to the poet Hannah Lowe. She is chair of judges of the 2023 BBC National Short Story Award, and is also on the judging panel for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2023.

Reeta Chakrabarti
Reeta ChakrabartiJournalist & Presenter
Nick Laird
Nick LairdPoet & Novelist

Nick Laird was born in County Tyrone in 1975, and is the Seamus Heaney Professor of Poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast. A poet, novelist, screenwriter, critic and former lawyer, his awards include the Betty Trask Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and a Guggenheim fellowship. For many years he taught at American universities including Columbia, Princeton and NYU. His last collection, Feel Free, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot and the Derek Walcott prizes. His poem, Up Late, was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2022, and a new collection is forthcoming in June 2023.

Our Judges

Pascale Petit
Pascale Petit2023 Chair & Poet

Pascale Petit was born in Paris and lives in Cornwall. She is of French, Welsh, and Indian heritage. Her eighth collection of poetry, Tiger Girl, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and for Wales Book of the Year. Her seventh, Mama Amazonica, won the inaugural Laurel Prize, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. Four previous collections were shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Pascale was a co-founder of The Poetry School.

Reeta Chakrabarti
Reeta ChakrabartiJournalist & Presenter

Reeta Chakrabarti is a journalist and presenter for BBC News. She presents the One, Six, and Ten O’Clock News on BBC1, and combines being a studio anchor with reporting from home and abroad. Prior to this, Reeta was a correspondent covering politics, home affairs, education, and community affairs. Reeta is an honorary fellow of Exeter College, Oxford; University College London; and the University of East London. She has an honorary doctorate from York St John University, and an honorary degree from Bath Spa University. Since March 2020 she has been Chancellor of York St John. Reeta was born in London, but brought up in Birmingham and lived in India as a teenager, and in France for a year as a student. She studied English and French at Oxford University. She was a judge for the 2021 David Cohen Prize for Literature, which was won by the novelist Colm Toibin. She was chair of judges for the 2022 Costa Book of the Year award, which went to the poet Hannah Lowe. She is chair of judges of the 2023 BBC National Short Story Award, and is also on the judging panel for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2023.

Nick Laird
Nick LairdPoet & Novelist

Nick Laird was born in County Tyrone in 1975, and is the Seamus Heaney Professor of Poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast. A poet, novelist, screenwriter, critic and former lawyer, his awards include the Betty Trask Prize, the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and a Guggenheim fellowship. For many years he taught at American universities including Columbia, Princeton and NYU. His last collection, Feel Free, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot and the Derek Walcott prizes. His poem, Up Late, was awarded the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem in 2022, and a new collection is forthcoming in June 2023.

Our Partners

Ginkgo Prize

Ginkgo Prize

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Poetry School

Poetry School

The Poetry Archive

The Poetry Archive

Kamini & Vindi Banga Family Trust

Kamini & Vindi Banga Family Trust

Kamini & Vindi Banga Family Trust

Landscapes for Life

Poetry School is a registered charity and a proud member of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations.

The Prize is supported by the Poet Laureate’s Honorarium, a Founder Patron and lover of poetry and a variety of other individual donors and trusts and foundations. Without their generosity, the Prize would not be possible.

Logo designed by Clive Hicks-Jenkins