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.
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