The Ted Hughes Award was an annual literary prize given to a living UK poet for new work in poetry. It was awarded each spring in recognition of a work from the previous year. It was a project which ran alongside Carol Ann Duffy's tenure as Poet Laureate, which ended when Duffy finished her 10 years as Poet Laureate in 2019[1]
Background
The award was established in 2009 with the permission of Carol Hughes in honour of British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes.[2] Annually the members of the Poetry Society and Poetry Book Society recommended a living UK poet who had completed the newest and most innovative work that year, "highlighting outstanding contributions made by poets to our cultural life." The award sought to celebrate new work that might have fallen beyond the conventional realms of poetry, embracing mediums such as music, dance and theatre. [3] The £5,000 prize funded from the annual honorarium that Poet LaureateCarol Ann Duffy receives as Laureate from The Queen.[4][5]
^The Persians is a site specific retelling of Aeschylus’ play by the same name first produced in 472 BCE.
^For Song of Lunch, Reid worked with director Niall MacCormick to adapt his narrative poem The Song of Lunch into a 50-minute BBC2 film.
^The Privilege of Rain is a collection compiled following a year as Writer in Residence at HM Prison Nottingham.
^Zones of Avoidance is a live production featuring multimedia written and performed by Sawkins and directed by Mark Hewitt
^The Coming Home radio programme featured poetry by Motion based on recordings he made of British soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
