Cholmondeley Awards

Joanne Harris (left) and Lemn Sissay (right) with 2022 Cholmondeley Awards winners David Kinloch, Tiffany Atkinson and Menna Elfin at Southwark Cathedral (photograph © Adrian Pope)
Joanne Harris (left) and Lemn Sissay (right) with 2022 Cholmondeley Awards winners David Kinloch, Tiffany Atkinson and Menna Elfin at Southwark Cathedral (photograph © Adrian Pope)
Recognising the achievement and distinction of individual poets

The Cholmondeley Awards for Poets were founded by the late Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966 to recognise the achievement and distinction of individual poets.


2023 Cholmondeley Award Winners


Caroline Bird
Jane Draycott
Greta Stoddart
Michael Symmons Roberts
Jackie Wills
Tamar Yoseloff

“The Cholmondeley Awards have been, since they were introduced in 1966, important honorary awards that recognise poets’ sustained excellence across a body of work. Some of the recipients will already be well-known in the poetry world, while others may be deserving of wider recognition for the distinction of their writing. Many of them will have contributed to the genre in a variety of ways, through their performances and tutoring, for example. The Cholmondeley Awards prove that excellence can be perceived across a wide range of poetry from a diversity of poets. It is hoped that the recipients will feel valued, encouraged and truly celebrated.” —Moniza Alvi, 2023 Cholmondeley Award judge



About the Cholmondeley Awards selection process:

  • The Cholmondeley Awards are honorary awards and submissions are not accepted
  • Recipients are chosen by the Awards Committee for their general body of work and contribution to poetry.

For any queries relating to the prize please contact [email protected]

With thanks, the judges of the 2023 Cholmondeley Awards:

Moniza Alvi

© Bob Coe

Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore to an English mother and a Pakistani father. She  grew up in Hertfordshire. Her first collection The Country at My Shoulder (Oxford University Press, 1993) was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot and the Whitbread poetry prizes. Europa (Bloodaxe, 2008) and At the Time of Partition  (Bloodaxe, 2013) were also shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Fairoz is published this spring. After a long career as a teacher in a London comprehensive school, Moniza now lives in Norfolk where she is completing a PhD at UEA on the poetry of Stevie Smith.

Hannah Lowe

Hannah Lowe is a poet, memoirist and critic. She was named a Poetry Book Society Next Generation Poet in 2014 and won a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in 2020. Her first poetry collection, Chick (20130, won the Michael Murphy Poetry Prize.  Her latest, The Kids, a PBS Choice for Autumn 2021, was shortlisted for the 2022 TS Eliot Prize, and won the 2021 Costa Book of the Year. She is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Brunel University. www.hannahlowe.me 

Kei Miller

Kei Miller is a Jamaican poet and novelist. His fourth collection, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion (Carcanet), won the prestigious Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2014 and was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award.In 2014, Kei was also named as one of the 20 ‘Next Generation Poets’, a list compiled every ten years by the Poetry Book Society.

Deryn Reese-Jones

Deryn Rees-Jones is a poet, critic and editor of the Pavilion Poetry list (Liverpool University Press). Recent books include Erato (shortlisted for the 2019 T S Eliot Prize), Fires (Shoestring) and Paula Rego: The Art of Story (Thames & Hudson). She is Professor of Poetry at the University of Liverpool.
 

2023

  • Caroline Bird £1400
  • Jane Draycott £1400
  • Greta Stoddart £1400
  • Michael Symmons Roberts £1400
  • Jackie Wills £1400
  • Tamar Yoseloff £1400

2022

  • David Kinloch £1680
  • Gerry Loose £1680
  • Maggie O’Sullivan £1680
  • Menna Elfyn £1680
  • Tiffany Atkinson £1680

2021

  • Kei Miller £1680
  • Paula Claire £1680
  • Maurice Riordan £1680
  • Susan Wicks £1680
  • Katrina Porteous £1680

2020

  • Alec Finlay £1680
  • Linda France £1680
  • Hannah Lowe £1680
  • Bhanu Kapil £1680
  • Rod Mengham £1680

2019

  • Malika Booker £2,100
  • Fred D’Aguiar £2,100
  • Allen Fisher £2,100
  • Jamie McKendrick £2,100

2018

  • Vahni Capildeo £1,680
  • Kate Clanchy £1,680
  • Linton Kwesi Johnson £1,680
  • Daljit Nagra £1,680
  • Zoë Skoulding £1,680

2017

  • Caroline Bergvall £2,000
  • Sasha Dugdale £2,000
  • Philip Gross £2,000
  • Paula Meehan £2,000

2016

  • Maura Dooley £1,875
  • David Morley £1,875
  • Peter Sansom £1,875
  • Iain Sinclair £1,875

2015

  • Patience Agbabi £1,500
  • Brian Catling £1,500
  • Christopher Middleton £1,500
  • Pascale Petit £1,500
  • J. H. Prynne £1,500

2014

  • W.N. Herbert £1,500
  • Jeremy Hooker £1,500
  • John James £1,500
  • Glyn Maxwell £1,500
  • Denise Riley £1,500

2013

  • Simon Armitage £1,500
  • Paul Farley £1,500
  • Lee Harwood £1,500
  • Medbh McGuckian £1,500

2012

  • Christine Evans £2,000
  • Don Paterson £2,000
  • Peter Riley £2,000
  • Robin Robertson £2,000

2011

  • Imtiaz Dharker £2,500
  • Michael Haslam £2,500
  • Lachlan Mackinnon £2,500

2010

  • Gillian Allnutt £1,500
  • Colette Bryce £1,500
  • Gwyneth Lewis £1,500
  • Deryn Rees-Jones £1,500

2009

  • Bernard O’Donoghue £1,500
  • Alice Oswald £1,500
  • Fiona Sampson £1,500
  • Pauline Stainer £1,500

2008

  • John Burnside £1,500
  • John Greening £1,500
  • David Harsent £1,500
  • Sarah Maguire £1,500

2007

  • Judith Kazantzis £2000
  • Robert Nye £2000
  • Penelope Shuttle £2000

2006

  • Alan Jenkins £2,000
  • Mimi Khalvati £2,000
  • Jo Shapcott £2,000

2005

  • Jane Duran £2,000
  • Christopher Logue £2,000
  • M. R. Peacocke £2,000
  • Neil Rollinson £2,000

2004

  • John Agard £2,000
  • Ruth Padel £2,000
  • Lawrence Sail £2,000
  • Eva Salzman £2,000

2003

  • Ciaran Carson £2,000
  • Michael Donaghy £2,000
  • Lavinia Greenlaw £2,000
  • Jackie Kay £2,000

2002

  • Moniza Alvi £2,000
  • David Constantine £2,000
  • Liz Lochhead £2,000
  • Brian Patten £2,000

2001

  • Ian Duhig £2,000
  • Paul Durcan £2,000
  • Kathleen Jamie £2,000
  • Grace Nichols £2,000

2000

  • Alistair Elliot £2,000
  • Michael Hamburger £2,000
  • Adrian Henri £2,000
  • Carole Satyamurti £2,000

1999

  • Vicki Feaver £2,000
  • Geoffrey Hill £2,000
  • Elma Mitchell £2,000
  • Sheenagh Pugh £2,000

1998

  • Roger McGough £2,000
  • Robert Minhinnick £2,000
  • Anne Ridler £2,000
  • Ken Smith £2,000

1997

  • Alison Brackenbury £2,000
  • Gillian Clarke £2,000
  • Tony Curtis £2,000
  • Anne Stevenson £2,000

1996

  • Elizabeth Bartlett £2,000
  • Dorothy Nimmo £2,000
  • Peter Scupham £2,000
  • Iain Crichton Smith £2,000

1995

  • U.A. Fanthorpe £2,000
  • Christopher Reid £2,000
  • C.H. Sisson £2,000
  • Kit Wright £2,000

1994

  • Ruth Fainlight £2,000
  • Gwen Harwood £2,000
  • Elizabeth Jennings £2,000
  • John Mole £2,000

1993

  • Patricia Beer £2,000
  • George Mackay Brown £2,000
  • P.J. Kavanagh £2,000
  • Michael Longley £2,000

1992

  • Allen Curnow £2,000
  • Donald Davie £2,000
  • Carol Ann Duffy £2,000
  • Roger Woddis £2,000

1991

  • James Berry £2,000
  • Sujata Bhatt £2,000
  • Michael Hulse £2,000
  • Derek Mahon £2,000

1990

  • Kingsley Amis £2,500
  • Elaine Feinstein £2,500
  • Michael O’Neill £2,500

1989

  • Peter Didsbury £2,200
  • Douglas Dunn £2,200
  • E.J. Scovell £2,200

1988

  • John Heath-Stubbs £2,000
  • Sean O’Brien £2,000
  • John Whitworth £2,000

1987

  • Wendy Cope £1,300
  • Matthew Sweeney £1,300
  • George Szirtes £1,300

1986

  • Lawrence Durrell £1,500
  • James Fenton £1,500
  • Selima Hill £500

1985

  • Dannie Abse £1,100
  • Peter Redgrove £1,100
  • Brian Taylor £1,100

1984

  • Michael Baldwin £1,100
  • Michael Hoffmann £1,100
  • Carol Rumens £1,100

1983

  • John Fuller £1,000
  • Craig Raine £1,000
  • Anthony Thwaite £1,000

1982

  • Basil Bunting £1,500
  • Herbert Lomas £1,000
  • William Scammell £500

1981

  • Roy Fisher £1,000
  • Robert Garioch £1,000
  • Charles Boyle £800

1980

  • George Barker £1,000
  • Terence Tiller £1,000
  • Roy Fuller £500

1979

  • Alan Brownjohn £1,000
  • Andrew Motion £500
  • Charles Tomlinson £500

1978

  • Christopher Hope £400
  • Leslie Norris £400
  • Peter Reading £400
  • D.M. Thomas £400
  • R.S. Thomas £400

1977

  • Peter Bland £500
  • George Macbeth £500
  • James Simmons £500
  • Andrew Waterman £500

1976

  • Peter Porter £1,000
  • Fleur Adcock £750

1975

  • Jenny Joseph £500
  • Norman Maccaig £500
  • John Ormond £500

1974

  • D.J. Enright £350
  • Vernon Scannell £350
  • Alasdair Maclean £350

1973

  • Patric Dickinson £350
  • Philip Larkin £350

1972

  • Molly Holden £350
  • Tom Raworth £350
  • Patricia Whittaker £350

1971

  • Charles Causley £350
  • Gavin Ewart £350
  • Hugo Williams £350

1970

  • Kathleen Raine £350
  • Douglas Livingstone £350
  • Edward Brathwaite £350

1969

  • Derek Walcott £650
  • Tony Harrison £650

1968

  • Harold Massingham £450
  • Edwin Morgan £450

1967

  • Seamus Heaney £350
  • Brian Jones £350
  • Norman Nicholson £350

1966

  • Ted Walker £500
  • Stevie Smith £300

Lady Lavinia, Late Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley

Lady Lavinia Cholmondeley
© Chesire Live

The Cholmondeley Awards were founded by the late Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley, Lady Lavinia. Born in 1921, she studied fine art in Florence and served as an auxiliary nurse during World War Two. The late Lady Cholmondeley was President of the North-West Division of the NSPCC for over fifty years and was Patron of St Luke’s Hospice since its formation in 1984. She also helped to restore the grand Cholmondeley castle and lived there up until her death in 2015.


Charity number 258800