Our Judges
Our Judges
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.
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 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.
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.