2004′s Next Generation included Deryn Rees-Jones, Patience Agbabi and Robin Robertson. See 1994’s New Generation list here.

 

2004’s Next Generation Poets

Patience Agbabi

Patience Agbabi
Born in 1965, Patience Agbabi is a poet and spoken word performer. Her use of traditional poetic forms with hard-hitting contemporary themes makes her an important voice on the poetry circuit today. Her retelling of the Canterbury Tales, Telling Tales, has just been published.

Amanda Dalton

Amanda Dalton
Has worked as a deputy head teacher, organised writers’ courses for the Arvon Foundation and been Education Director at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. She is the author of two poetry collections, the first of which, How to Disappear, was awarded the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 1997.

Nick Drake

Nick Drake
As a poet, Nick Drake has authored three collections, the first of which, The Man in the White Suit, won the 1999 Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection. His latest collection, Farewell Glacier, was published in 2012 and he is celebrated for his historical mystery novels.

Jane Draycott (credit Ian Macdonald)

Jane Draycott

Jane Draycott’s first two collections, Prince Rupert’s Drop and The Night Tree, were both Poetry Book Society Recommendations. Over was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize in 2009, and her new translation of the 14th century dream-vision, Pearl (2011), was a Stephen Spender Prize-winner.

Paul Farley
Born in Liverpool in 1965, Farley’s debut book of poetry, The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See You, won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. He has since twice been shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize, won the Whitbread Poetry Award and is Professor of Poetry at Lancaster University.

Leontia Flynn

Leontia Flynn

Leontia Flynn won an Eric Gregory award in 2001 and her first book of poems won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. She is a Research Fellow at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University Belfast and her third collection, Profit and Loss, was a PBS Choice and shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize 2011.

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Matthew Francis
Poet, editor and Professor at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Matthew Francis is the author of several poetry collections. His short story collection was shortlisted for Wales’ Book of the Year in 2013, and Faber published his latest collection, Muscovy, in 2013.

Sophie Hannah

Sophie Hannah
Poet and novelist, Sophie Hannah has authored five collections and published a Selected Poems in 2006. She has published eight crime fiction novels, one of which was produced for a two-part ITV drama drawing 5.4 million viewers, and is the new author of the bestselling Poirot – The Monogram Murders.

Tobias Hill

Tobias Hill
Poet, novelist and essayists, Tobias Hill has written four collections of poetry. Having won awards and recognition for both his poetry and fiction, Hill became the inaugural Programme Director of the Faber Academy in 2009, and is now a Senior Creative Writing Lecturer at Oxford Brookes.

Gwyneth Lewis

Gwyneth Lewis
Lewis has published eight books of poetry in Welsh and English and was the first writer to be given the Welsh laureateship. Twice shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Poetry, she is an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff, Liverpool and Bangor Universities, and Honorary Doctor of University of Glamorgan.

Alice Oswald

Alice Oswald
Oswald is one of the most revered poets writing today, having won Forward Prizes for Best First Collection in 1996 and Best Single Poem in 2007, and the T S Eliot Prize in 2002. Her illustrated collection, Weeds and Wild Flowers, won the inaugural Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry in 2009.

Pascale Petit (credit Jemimah Kuhfeld)

Pascale Petit

Petit was born in Paris and grew up in France and Wales, and has produced five collections of poetry, three of which were shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize. She has received three awards from Arts Council England and two from the Society of Authors, and her poems have been translated into eighteen languages.

Jacob Polley

Jacob Polley
Born in 1975, Polley’s first collection of poetry, The Brink (2003), was a PBS Choice and went on to be shortlisted for the T S Eliot, Forward and the John Llewellyn Rhys prizes. He has received a Somerset Maugham Award for his fiction and his latest book of poetry, The Havocs (2012), was shortlisted for the Forward and T S Eliot Prizes and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.

Deryn Rees-Jones

Deryn Rees-Jones
Rees-Jones has published five collections of poetry, the latest of which, Burying the Wren, was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize in 2012. She edited both a collection of essays on Modern Women Poets and an accompanying anthology, and was the judge for the 2010 National Poetry Competition.

Maurice Riordan

Maurice Riordan
Riordan has published four collections of poetry, his first, A Word from Loki (1995), being a PBS Choice and second, Floods, being shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award. His latest collection, The Water Stealer, was a PBS Autumn Recommendation for 2013 and he is currently editor of Poetry Review.

robin robertson

Robin Robertson
Robertson’s poetry has won the clean sweep of Forward Prizes, Best First Collection in 1997, Best Collection in 2006 and Best Single Poem in 2009. His latest collection, The Wrecking Light, was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award and the T S Eliot Prize, and he is poetry editor at Jonathan Cape.

Owen Sheers

Owen Sheers
Born in Fiji and brought up in South Wales, Sheers’ first collection was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year and the Forward Poetry Prize. His poetry has won him an Eric Gregory Award and the Somerset Maugham Award, and he is a successful playwright and television presenter.

Henry Shukman

Henry Shukman
Poet and writer, Henry Shukman has received many awards for both his poetry and his novels. His first collection won the Jerwood Aldeburgh Poetry Prize and was the Book of the Year in The Times and the Guardian. He has been Poet in Residence at the Wordsworth Trust, and currently lives and teaches in New Mexico.

Catherine Smith (credit Derek Adams)

Catherine Smith
An award-winning poet and fiction writer, her first collection was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and her second was a PBS Recommendation. She teaches creative writing at Sussex University, the Arvon Foundation and The Poetry School.

Jean Sprackland (credit pshikotra event photography)

Jean Sprackland
One of Britain’s most consistent poets, Jean Sprackland’s collections have been shortlisted for the Forward, Whitbread and T S Eliot Prizes. Her 2007 book, Tilt, was the winner of the 2007 Costa Poetry Award and her latest collection, Sleeping Keys, was a PBS 2013 Autumn Recommendation.