Saturday 2 January 2010

Don Paterson strikes gold...









Scottish poet Don Paterson has become the latest recipient of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. Created in 1933 by King George V, the Medal is awarded annually by the monarch for a book of verse publihsed in the Commonwealth. Traditionally the award is announced on Shakespeare's supposed birthday, April 23rd; however, this year the poet was named in the 2010 New Year's Honour List. Paterson, who recently won the £10,000 Forward Poetry Prize in October, was awarded the honour for his poetry anthology 'Rain'. Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy chaired the judging panel, and said Paterson's work was 'poetry of bravery and conviction...acutely attuned to the most intimate of human exchanges'. The Medal has previously been won by names such as T.S. Eliot, John Betjeman and W.H. Auden.

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