TS Eliot prize unveils shortlist of 'fearless poets'

Nominees for the £25,000 prize include Jay Bernard, Sharon Olds and Anthony Anaxagorou

Jay Bernard’s Surge, an exploration of the 1981 New Cross fire in south London that killed 13 young black people, is one of 10 collections shortlisted for the prestigious TS Eliot prize for poetry.

Surge has already won the Ted Hughes prize, and is also up for the 2019 Forward prize for best first collection, to be decided next week. Bernard is nominated alongside former winner Sharon Olds, who was picked for Arias, a collection that considers a woman’s intimate life and political conscience, tackling subjects from the cervix to Trayvon Martin.

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