Two down, one to go? Michael Symmons Roberts wins Costa prize
Michael Symmons Roberts has taken a second poetry prize for his collection, Drysalter. After winning the Forward prize last October, he won the £5,000 Costa poetry prize as well on Monday night, 6 January. Drysalter takes its name from the ancient trade in powders, chemicals, salts and dyes, paints and cures. The collection is made up of 150 poems of 15 lines. Symmons Roberts has published five collections of poetry, including Corpus, which won the 2004 Whitbread poetry award. He has also published two novels, Patrick’s Alphabet and Breath, and a non-fiction book Edgelands (with Paul Farley). He is a frequent collaborator with the composer James MacMillan, and as a radio writer and documentary film-maker has won a number of awards. Drysalter is also on the shortlist for the TS Eliot prize, which will be awarded next week, and Symmons Roberts, along with the other shortlisted poets, will be reading at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday night. You can read a poem from Drysalter here
Background: the Costa poetry shortlist
Greg Freeman
Thu 9th Jan 2014 14:15
You're quite right about the Costa not being an open poetry competition, Philip. Neither is the Forward, which Michael Symmons Roberts also won. As a result he has featured several times in our news items in the last few months. You don't have to have read them, of course. Thanks for reading this one.