Commonwealth Poetry Prize

The Commonwealth Poetry Prize was an annual poetry prize established in 1972,^[1] for a first published book of English poetry from a country other than the United Kingdom. It was initially administered jointly by the Commonwealth Institute and the National Book League.^[2]

In 1985 the prize received sponsorship from British Airways. £11,000 prize money was provided for the prize, which was advertized as "the world's most comprehensive award for poetry".^[3]

Poems by 35 winners of the prize, each introduced with a brief biographical note, were collected in a 1987 anthology, Under another Sky.^[4]

The prize was discontinued in 1987, and a Commonwealth Writers Prize established in its place.

Commonwealth prize winners

Year	Winners
1972	Chinua Achebe, Beware Soul Brother (1971) George McWhirter, Catalan Poems (1971) Commended: Richard Ntiru, David Mitchell
1973	Wayne Brown, On the Coast (1972)
1974	Dennis Scott, Uncle Time (1973)
1975
1976	Michael Jackson, Latitudes of Exile: Poems 1965–1975 (1976) Runners-up: Peter Kocan, The Other Side of the Fence co-runner-up (1976) Robin Thurston 'Believed Dangerous - 58 Poems' 1976 published by Queensland University Press.
1977	Arun Kolatkar, Jejuri (1976) Runner-up: R. Parthasarathy, Rough Passage (1977)
1978	Timoshenko Aslanides
1979	Brian Turner, Ladders of Rain (1978) Gabriel Okra
1980	Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Crossing the Peninsula (1980) Audrey Longbottom, Relatives and Reliques (1979)
1981	Philip Salom, The Silent Piano (1980)
1982	Peter Goldsworthy, Readings from Ecclesiastes: Poems (1982)
1983	Grace Nichols, I is a Long-Memoried Woman (1983)
1984	David Dabydeen, Slave Song (1984) Runner-up: Syd Harrex, Atlantis and other Islands.
1985	Lauris Edmond, Selected Poems (1984) Regional Prizes: Vikram Seth (Asia), Timothy Holmes, Michael Longley, Kobena Eyi Acquah, Gary Geddes
1986	Lorna Goodison, I am Becoming My Mother (1986) Regional Prizes: Anne Michaels (Americas), Iain Chrichton Smith
1987	Philip Salom, Sky Poems (1986) Regional Prizes: Tanure Ojaide (Africa)

References

1. Alastair Niven, 'The Commonwealth poetry prize', in Richard Maltby and Peter Quartermaine, eds., The Commonwealth: a common culture, pp.53-62.
2. William Henry Wilde; Joy W. Hooton; B. G. Andrews (1985). "Commonwealth Poetry Prize". The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-19-554233-2.
3. News & Notes, PN Review 44, July–August 1985. Accessed 1 September 2020.
4. Alastair Niven, ed., Under another sky: an anthology of Commonwealth Poetry Prize winners. Manchester, England: Carcanet, 1987.