The Poetry Archive

The Poetry Archive The Poetry Archive exists to help make poetry accessible, relevant and enjoyable to a wide audience. Poetry was an oral art form before it became textual. E.

The Poetry Archive came into being as a result of a meeting, in a recording studio, between Andrew Motion, soon after he became U.K. Poet Laureate in 1999, and the recording producer, Richard Carrington. They agreed about how enjoyable and illuminating it is to hear poets reading their work and about how regrettable it was that, even in the recent past, many important poets had not been properly r

ecorded. Homer's work lived through the spoken word long before any markings were made on a page. Hearing a poet reading his or her work remains uniquely illuminating. It helps us to understand the work as well as helping us to enjoy it. When a poet dies without making a recording, a precious resource is lost for ever and as time goes by that loss is felt more and more keenly. What would we not give to be able to hear Keats and Byron reading their work? And, if recording had been possible in the early nineteenth century, how inexplicable it would seem now if no-one had recorded their voices. Yet in the twentieth century, when recording technology became universal, there was no systematic attempt to record all significant poets for posterity and even some major poets - Thomas Hardy and A. Housman (as far as we know. Please tell us if you have a recording of Hardy or Housman reading his poetry!), for example - died without having been recorded at all. The Poetry Archive has, therefore, been created to make sure that such omissions never happen again and that everyone has a chance to hear major poets reading their work.

You can explore the work of previous T. S. Eliot Prize winning poets via the Archive: https://poetryarchive.org/collecti...
26/05/2026

You can explore the work of previous T. S. Eliot Prize winning poets via the Archive: https://poetryarchive.org/collections/t-s-eliot-prize/

The T. S. Eliot Foundation is delighted to announce the judges for the T. S. Eliot Prize 2026. Leontia Flynn (Chair) will be joined on the panel by fellow poets Ishion Hutchinson and Daisy Lafarge.

The T. S. Eliot Prize is awarded annually to the writer of the best new poetry collection written in English published in the UK and Ireland. The prize is unique in that entrants are judged by their peers; the panel always consists of established poets.

Leontia Flynn said:
‘It’s an honour to chair this year’s T. S. Eliot Prize, alongside my fellow judges, esteemed poets Ishion Hutchinson
and Daisy Lafarge. We look forward to encountering new work from the busy and always extraordinary world of
contemporary poetry.’

For more information on this year’s Prize and the Prize’s history, visit tseliot.com/prize!

25/05/2026

A rare record of literary history, captured in sound.

The Writers' Group recording of 1946 features major twentieth-century poets.

Your support can help preserve these recordings as we work towards our aim of making them publicly available!

💛 Donate via: https://poetryarchive.org/support/donate/

18/05/2026

Nearly 80 years old. Fragile. Not yet digitised and available online.

We’re working to preserve The Writers' Group Recordings of 1946.

💛 Donate to support this project: https://poetryarchive.org/support/donate/

15/05/2026

We’re currently working to preserve rare poetry recordings from 1946, featuring T. S. Eliot, Edith Sitwell and Stephen Spender.

These recordings have never previously been digitised and made available online.

Your donation directly supports their preservation and digitisation.
💛 Donate via: https://poetryarchive.org/support/donate/

11/05/2026

The Writer's Group recordings were part of rebuilding cultural ties after WWII.

We’re now working to preserve them!

💛 Donate to support our new project: https://poetryarchive.org/support/donate/

04/05/2026

We’re currently working to preserve rare poetry recordings from 1946, featuring T. S. Eliot, Edith Sitwell and Stephen Spender.

These recordings have never previously been digitised and made available online.

Your donation directly supports their preservation and digitisation.
💛 Donate: https://poetryarchive.org/support/donate/

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Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street
Exeter
EX43LS

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