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2021
Winner
​The Kids by Hannah Lowe

Shortlist
All the Names Given by Raymond Antrobus
A Blood Condition by Kayo Chingonyi
Eat Or We Both Starve by Victoria Kennefick
2020
Winner
The Historians by Eavan Boland

Shortlist
The Air Year by Caroline Bird
My Darling from the Lions by Rachel Long
Citadel by Martha Sprackland
2019
Winner
Fleche by Mary Jean Chan

Shortlist
Surge by Jay Bernard
The Mizzy by Paul Farley
Reckless Paper Birds by John McCullough
Costa Poetry Award
2018
Winner
Assurances by JO Morgan

Shortlist
Us by Zaffar Kunial
Soho by Richard Scott
Three Poems by Hannah Sullivan

2017
Winner
Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore

Shortlist
Kumukanda by Kayo Chingonyi
On Balance by Sinéad Morrissey
Useful Verses by Richard Osmond

2016
Winner
Falling Awake by Alice Oswald
 
Shortlist
Sunshine by Melissa Lee-Houghton
Say Something Back by Denise Riley
Let Them Eat Chaos by Kae Tempest
 
2015
Winner
40 Sonnets by Don Paterson
 
Shortlist
Physical by Andrew McMillan
The Observances by Kate Miller
Talking Dead by Neil Rollinson
 
2014
Winner
My Family and Other Superheroes by Jonathan Edwards
 
Shortlist
The Whole and Rain-domed Universe by Colette Bryce
A Double Sorrow: Troilus and Criseyde by Lavinia Greenlaw
The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion by Kei Miller
 
2013
Winner
Drysalter by Michael Symmons Roberts
 
Shortlist
Dante, The Divine Comedy by Clive James
Division Street by Helen Mort
Hill of Doors by Robin Robertson
 
2012
Winner
The Overhaul by Kathleen Jamie
 
Shortlist
Bee Journal by Sean Borodale
The World’s Two Smallest Humans by Julia Copus
People Who Like Meatballs by Selima Hill
 
2011
Winner
The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy
 
Shortlist
Night by David Harsent
Fiere by Jackie Kay
November by Sean O'Brien
 
2010
Winner
Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott
 
Shortlist
Standard Midland by Roy Fisher
The Wrecking Light by Robin Robertson
New Light for the Old Dark by Sam Willetts
 
2009
Winner
A Scattering by Christopher Reid
 
Shortlist
Angels over Elsinore by Clive James
One Eye’d Leigh by Katherine Kilalea
Darwin: A Life in Poems by Ruth Padel
 
2008
Winner
The Broken Word by Adam Foulds
 
Shortlist
For All We Know by Ciaran Carson
Sunday at the Skin Launderette by Kathryn Simmonds
Salvation Jane by Greta Stoddart
 
2007
Winner
Tilt by Jean Sprackland
 
Shortlist
The Speed of Dark by Ian Duhig
The Space of Joy by John Fuller
Look We Have Coming to Dover! by Daljit Nagra
 
2006
Winner
Letter to Patience by John Haynes
 
Shortlist
The Book of Blood by Vicki Feaver
District and Circle by Seamus Heaney
Dear Room by Hugo Williams
 
Whitbread Poetry Award
2005
Winner
Cold Calls by Christopher Logue
 
Shortlist
Legion by David Harsent
Lucky Day by Richard Price
Marabou by Jane Yeh
 
2004
Winner
Corpus by Michael Symmons Roberts
 
Shortlist
These Days by Leontia Flynn
Ghosts by John Fuller
Ground Water by Matthew Hollis
 
2003
Winner
Landing Light by Don Paterson
 
Shortlist
Minsk by Lavinia Greenlaw
Ink Stone by Jamie McKendrick
Hard Water by Jean Sprackland
 
2002
Winner
The Ice Age by Paul Farley
 
Shortlist
Something for the Ghosts by David Constantine
Voodoo Shop by Ruth Padel
The Beautiful Lie by Sheenagh Pugh
 
2001
Winner
Bunny by Selima Hill
 
Shortlist
The Age of Cardboard and String by Charles Boyle
If I Don’t Know by Wendy Cope
Panoramic Lounge-Bar by John Stammers
 
2000
Winner
The Asylum Dance by John Burnside
 
Shortlist
Conjure by Michael Donaghy
Collected Poems by RF Langley
Floods by Maurice Riordan
Granny Scarecrow by Anne Stevenson
 
1999
Winner
Beowulf by Seamus Heaney
 
Shortlist
Approximately Nowhere by Michael Hofmann
Alcestis by Ted Hughes
The Eyes by Don Paterson
 
1998
Winner
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
 
Shortlist
The Boy from the Chemist is Here to See you by Paul Farley
The Wasting Game by Philip Gross
 
1997
Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes
 
Shortlist
CloudCuckooLand by Simon Armitage
Sugar-Paper blue by Ruth Fainlight
Violet by Selima Hill
Assembling a Ghost by Peter Redgrove
 
1996
Winner
The Spirit Level by Seamus Heaney
 
Shortlist
Safe As Houses by UA Fanthorpe
The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile by Alice Oswald
Expanded Universes by Christopher Reid
The Wound-dresser’s Dream by Pauline Stainer
 
1995
Winner
Gunpowder by Bernard O'Donoghue
 
Shortlist
The Dead Sea Poems by Simon Armitage
The Shadow of Hiroshima and other film/poems by Tony Harrison
Rest for the Wicked by Glyn Maxwell
 
1994
Winner
Out of Danger by James Fenton
 
1993
Winner
Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy
 
1992
Winner
The Gaze of the Gorgon by Tony Harrison
 
1991
Winner
Gorse Flies by Michael Longley
 
1990
Winner
Daddy, Daddy by Paul Durcan
 
1989
Winner
Shibboleth by Michael Donaghy
 
1988
Winner
The Automatic Oracle by Peter Porter
 
1987
Winner
The Haw Lantern by Seamus Heaney
 
1986
Winner
Stet by Peter Reading
 
1985
Winner
Elegies by Douglas Dunn
 
1971
Winner
Mercian Hymns by Geoffrey Hill
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