English and Creative Writing | Staff success

T.S. Eliot Prize 2009

Professor Philip Gross scooped the UK’s foremost prize for poetry, the prestigious TS Eliot prize, with his collection of poems ‘The Water Table’- detailed and lyrical meditations on the ever-changing waters of the Severn estuary.

The TS Eliot prize is known as the UK’s most lucrative and high profile poetry prize. Philip’s competition included better-known peers such as Alice Oswald, Sharon Olds and Christopher Reid.

Wales Book of the Year 2010

Hot on the heels of his success with 'The Water Table’, Professor Gross was awarded the Wales Book of the Year 2010 title for 'I Spy Pinhole Eye’ – a collection of poems written to accompany Simon Denison’s pinhole photography – published by Cinnamon Press.

Professor Gross faced strong competition from across Wales and even within his own University: Glamorgan MPhil in Writing student Mike Thomas, was also nominated for his first novel, Pocket Notebook (Heinemann).

Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2010

Tiffany Murray was shortlisted for the UK’s only literary award for comic writing, for her novel, Diamond Star Halo. This years’ shortlist included work by Ian McEwan, Paul Murray, David Nicholls and Malcolm Pryce.

The winner, announced at the Hay Festival, will be presented with a jereboam of champagne, a set of the Everyman Wodehouse and have a locally-raised Gloucestershire Old Spot pig named after their winning book.