Prestigious award for St Andrews poet

University of St Andrews Professor of Poetry Don Paterson has won one of the most prestigious awards on the literary calendar.

Professor Paterson is this year’s recipient of the 2015 Costa poetry award for his latest collection 40 Sonnets.

Judges described 40 Sonnets as: “A tour de force by a poet at the height of his powers – these poems buzz with life and intelligence. The stand-out collection of the year.”

The Costa Book Awards is the only major book prize open solely to authors resident in the UK and Ireland.  In 2003 Professor Paterson won the accolade for his work Landing Light.

Professor Paterson said: “I’m surprised and delighted to have won, especially given the strength of the other books on the shortlist.”

Professor Paterson’s previous poetry collections include Nil Nil, God’s Gift to Women, Landing Light and Rain.  He has also published two books of aphorism, as well as translations of Antonio Machado and Rainer Maria Rilke.

His poetry has won many awards, including the Whitbread Poetry Award (2003), the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and all three Forward Prizes; he is currently the only poet to have won the TS Eliot Prize twice, and in 2009 was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2009.

Issued by the Press Office, University of St Andrews

Contact [email protected] or tel 01334 462530

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