First of all, the poem or book needs to come to my notice and then I have to decide I'm interested enough to read it. This is an appallingly difficult criteria for any poetry to meet if not written by anyone I recognize as a personal favourite but I do read reviews and sometimes specifically scan the internet or the Poetry Library for likely candidates, not initially for the purposes of the prize, of course, but to find new poems worth reading.
Once I'm reading it, then, the poems are well ahead of the opposition from the huge amount of new poetry published each year and the game is on to make the shortlist. I will provide some commentary when the winners are announced next month but these candidates will be considered further for a few more weeks while I convince myself I got it right.
A list of previous winners was compiled and put here on the equivalent posting last year.
Best Poem
Sue Hubbard, The Ice Ship, from The Forgetting and Remembering of Air
August Kleinzahler, A Wine Tale, from The Hotel Oneira
Roddy Lumsden, Women in Paintings, from The Edinburgh Review 137
Glyn Maxwell, The Case of After, from Pluto
Sinead Morrissey, A Day's Blindness, from Parallax
Sean O'Brien, Lamplight, from Poetry London 74
Michael Symmons Roberts, In Babylon, from Drysalter
Best Collection
August Kleinzahler, The Hotel Oneira (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Sinead Morrissey, Parallax (Carcanet)
Michael Symmons Roberts, Drysalter (Cape)