John Burnside’s Black Cat Bone has won this year’s T.S. Eliot prize, the most controversial in years. Nominees Alice Oswald and John Kinsella withdrew from the prize on discovering that it was to be sponsored by a hedge fund, Aurum. Oswald’s objection was that “poetry should be challenging such institutions”, although she appeared to make little effort in understanding Aurum’s business and whether it merits censure — a possible oversight that was questioned by the Observer’s William Skidelsky. Meanwhile, Kinsella said that his withdrawal was the latest chapter in a career defined by “linguistic disobedience”, whatever that might be.
A few tired hacks hoped that the other shortlisted poets might follow their former competitors’ example. As it happened, no one else dropped out of the running for the £15,000 prize — the largest in British poetry — which is donated in person by Eliot’s widow, Valerie. But the controversy would not rest, or was not allowed to rest. A week after Kinsella’s announcement, Gillian Clarke, the poet who chaired this year’s judging panel, wrote a piece for the Guardian in which she tried to defend the prize and Aurum’s sponsorship:
‘Take it [money] from the rich, give it to the poet and the reader. The TS Eliot prize cleans the money.’
What ingratitude! What self-regard! What farce! None of this really matters, but sponsoring these pseuds has hardly been the best advert for Aurum’s judgment.
There was little outward sign of melodrama last night, which allowed Burnside to receive the plaudits he deserved — even if some of the literati think that Alice Oswald might have done herself out of some filthy lucre by retiring. Black Cat Bone is Burnside’s 11th collection; and it was warmly reviewed last autumn. In addition to taking the Eliot prize, the collection also won the Forward prize — only the third poet to do that double, after Ted Hughes and Sean O’Brien. The memory of that achievement should outlive the absurd pantomime which preceded it; then again, Aurum will sponsor the prize next year…
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