UK Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, and the Poetry School, announce the shortlist for the annual nature and ecopoetry award, The Laurel Prize.

The prize is funded by Simon Armitage’s Laureate’s honorarium, and is run by the Poetry School. It is awarded to the best collection of environmental or nature poetry published that year.

YSP is delighted to support the prize and will be hosting a day of poetry readings and workshops, in celebration of the 2022 winning and shortlisted writers on Friday 16 September, curated and funded by the Laurel and Ginkgo Prizes.

The winners will be announced at a special ceremony in the auditorium at YSP Centre on Friday 16 September. Tickets are free but limited. Register to attend.

The 2022 shortlist was judged by the poets Glyn Maxwell (Chair), and Elena Karina Byrne, and Tishani Doshi.

Shortlisted Poets

Jemma Borg, Wilder (Pavilion Books)

Steve Ely, The European Eel (Longbarrow Press)

Rebecca Hawkes, Meat Lovers (Auckland University Press)

Cynthia Miller, Honorifics (Nine Arches Press)

Linda France, The Knucklebone Floor (Smokestack Books)