John Burnside, who died earlier this year aged 69, has been posthumously awarded the 2024 Laurel prize for his collection Ruin, Blossom (Jonathan Cape), it was announced on Saturday night.

The £5,000 Laurel prize was established by the poet laureate Simon Armitage as an annual award for the best collection of nature or environmental poetry that highlights the climate crisis and raises awareness of the challenges and potential solutions “at this critical point in our planet’s life”.

John Burnside, who was born in Dunfermline, was a prize-winning poet, critic and novelist, and nature columnist. His final collection, Ruin, Blossom has been described as exploring ageing, mortality, and environmental destruction.

This year’s prize judges were Mona Arshi (chair), Caroline Bird, and Kwame Dawes. Two poets from New Zealand were among the five winners. Second prize went to Hannah Copley for Lapwing (Pavilion Poetry), and Robyn Maree Pickens was placed third for Tung (Otago University Press). 

Best First Collection UK went to Charlotte Shevchenko Knight with Food for the Dead (Jonathan Cape), and Best International First Collection was Megan Kitching’s At the Point of Seeing (Otago University Press).