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Debut collection covering war, migration and America shortlisted for TS Eliot Prize

The 10 shortlisted collections were narrowed down from a record 154 entries by the team of judges.
The 10 shortlisted collections were narrowed down from a record 154 entries by the team of judges. The 10 shortlisted collections were narrowed down from a record 154 entries by the team of judges.

Vietnamese-American poet Ocean Vuong’s debut collection has been shortlisted for the UK’s most lucrative poetry award, the TS Eliot Prize.

The Saigon-born writer, who moved to the US as a toddler, is among those vying for the £25,000 prize with his first collection, Night Sky With Exit Wounds, which covers migration, America and his country of birth.

Vuong, who won the £5,000 Forward Prize for Best First Collection last month, is up against nine others including British poets Roddy Lumsden, Michael Symmons Roberts, Robert Minhinnick, and Caroline Bird for the 25th TS Eliot award.

Lumsden is shortlisted for So Glad I’m Me, Symmons Roberts for Mancunia, Minhinnick for Diary Of The Last Man and Bird for In These Days Of Prohibition.

Others in the running for the award are Irish poet Tara Bergin for The Tragic Death Of Eleanor Marx as well as Douglas Dunn (The Noise Of A Fly), James Sheard (The Abandoned Settlements), Leontia Flynn (The Radio) and Jacqueline Saphra (All My Mad Mothers).

The 10 shortlisted collections were narrowed down from a record 154 entries by the team of judges.

Chair Bill Herbert said: “This was a very strong year, and it was a privilege to read so many books that possessed as well as intrigued us; our shortlist explores grief, pleasure, place and history in a formidable variety of ways.”

The nominees for the prize are:

Tara Bergin – The Tragic Death Of Eleanor Marx (Carcanet)


Caroline Bird – In these Days Of Prohibition (Carcanet)


Douglas Dunn – The Noise Of A Fly (Faber & Faber)


Leontia Flynn – The Radio (Cape Poetry)


Roddy Lumsden – So Glad I’m Me (Bloodaxe)


Michael Symmons Roberts – Mancunia (Cape Poetry)


Robert Minhinnick – Diary Of The Last Man (Carcanet)


James Sheard – The Abandoned Settlements (Cape Poetry)


Jacqueline Saphra – All My Mad Mothers (Nine Arches Press)


Ocean Vuong – Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Cape Poetry)