Congratulations to Maura Dooley

The Festival team is delighted to hear of Maura Dooley's collection Life Under Water being shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize 2008. Maura has delivered some beautiful readings to Birmingham Book Festival audiences in the past, and has been shortlisted for this prize before, with her 1996 collection Kissing A Bone. She stands amongst an impressive line up, including another previously shortlisted poet, Mark Doty, and the recent winner of the Forward Prize, Mick Imlah.

The Full Short List:


Moniza Alvi - Europa (Bloodaxe)
Peter Bennet -The Glass Swarm (Flambard)
Ciaran Carson - For All We Know (Gallery Books)
Robert Crawford -Full Volume (Cape)
Maura Dooley - Life Under Water (Bloodaxe)
Mark Doty - Theories and Apparitions (Cape)
Jen Hadfield - Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe)
Mick Imlah - The Lost Leader (Faber)
Glyn Maxwell - Hide Now (Picador)
Stephen Romer - Yellow Studio (Carcanet)

The winner will be announced on 12 January. Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, is chair of the judging panel; his fellow judges are Lavinia Greenlaw and Tobias Hill.

We wish Maura the best of luck!

Sara