Ted Hughes Award

The Ted Hughes Award is an annual prize given to a living UK poet for new work in poetry.

Background
The award was established in 2009 with the permission of Carol Hughes in honour of British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. Annually the members of the Poetry Society and Poetry Book Society recommend a living UK poet who has completed the newest and most innovative work that year, "highlighting outstanding contributions made by poets to our cultural life." The award seeks to celebrate new work that may fall beyond the conventional realms of poetry, embracing mediums such as music, dance and theatre. The £5,000 prize funded from the annual honorarium that Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy receives as Laureate from The Queen.

Alice Oswald was the inaugural winner in 2010 for her collection Weeds and Wildflowers (etchings by Jessica Greenman). In 2011 judges Gillian Clarke, Stephen Raw and Jeanette Winterson awarded the award to Kaite O’Reilly for her site specific retelling of Aeschylus’ play, The Persians (first produced in 472 BCE). Three other poets were short-listed. Christopher Reid worked with director Niall MacCormick to adapt his narrative poem The Song of Lunch into a 50-minute BBC2 film. David Swann's The Privilege of Rain (published by Waterloo Press, with wood-cuts by Clare Dunne), is a collection compiled following a year as Writer in Residence at HMP Nottingham (prison). Katharine Towers' The Floating Man is a debut collection published by Picador.

In 2012, Lavinia Greenlaw won the prize for for sound piece  Audio Obscura. Shortlisted were Julia Copus for Ghost Lines, Robert Crawford for Simonides, Andrew Motion for Laurels and Donkeys and Christopher Reid for Airs and Ditties of No Man’s Land.

In 2013, judges Cornelia Parker, Ian Duhig and Maura Dooley awarded the prize to Kate Tempest for her work Brand New Ancients. Shortlisted were Colette Bryce, Roy Fisher, Ruth Padel, Mario Petrucci, Denise Riley and Tamar Yoseloff.

Winners

 * 2010: Alice Oswald for Weeds and Wildflowers (etchings by Jessica Greenman)
 * 2011: Kaite O’Reilly for The Persians.
 * 2012: Lavinia Greenlaw for  Audio Obscura.
 * 2013: Kate Tempest for Brand New Ancients.