Jason Allen-Paisant: Poet's Self-Portrait as Othello wins TS Eliot prize

Jamaican poet Jason Allen-Paisant has won the prestigious TS Eliot Prize for his book Self-Portrait as Othello.

The judges described his work as full of nerve, style and integrity "to which readers will return for many years".

Allen-Paisant teaches critical theory and creative writing at the University of Manchester. His first non-fiction book will be published later this year.

He was presented with the £25,000 award at a ceremony in London celebrating the prize's 30th anniversary.

Leeds-based Allen-Paisant's second collection uses Shakespeare's Othello to explore a black male immigrant's search for an identity and masculine role model. It has been positively received by numerous critics.

His first poetry collection, Thinking with Trees, also scooped the poetry category for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in 2022.

Chair of judges, Paul Muldoon, who has previously won the TS Eliot prize, and fellow judges Sasha Dugdale and Denise Saul, said: "Self-Portrait as Othello is a book with large ambitions that are met with great imaginative capacity, freshness and technical flair.

"As the title would suggest, the poetry is delivered with theatricality and in a range of voices and registers, across geographies and eras."

Judges received a total of 186 submissions submitted by British and Irish publishers, and 10 poets from across the UK, Ireland, Hong Kong and the US were shortlisted.

The TS Eliot Prize 2023 shortlist:

The shortlisted poets held a nearly two-hour reading to a packed audience at the UK's largest annual poetry event, held in London's Royal Festival Hall on Sunday evening.

They will each receive a cheque for £1,500 in recognition of their achievement.

Last year's winner was British-Trinidadian poet and novelist Anthony Joseph for his autobiographical collection Sonnets for Albert, which explores the impact of growing up with an absent father.

The TS Eliot Prize is awarded annually to the best new poetry collection published in the UK and Ireland. Previous winners also include Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, former poet laureate Ted Hughes, Alice Oswald, and Carol Ann Duffy.