LEH Alumna on the Costa Book Awards 2020 Shortlist

Among Caroline’s many previous accolades are the 2020 Forward Prize for The Air Year, the Dylan Thomas Prize and an Eric Gregory Award. She has also been shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Ted Hughes Award, and was one of the five official poets at the 2012 London Olympics.  

The judges described her shortlisted volume as: Inventive and big-hearted, surreal and personal - this collection is full of love, clever connections and brilliant individual poems.’

The Air Year is published by Carcanet and, according to the book jacket, tells of "a time of flight, transition and suspension: signatures scribbled on the sky. Bird's speakers exist in a state of unrest, trapped in a liminal place between take-off and landing, undeniably lost. Love is uncontrollable, joy comes and goes at hurricane speed. They walk to the cliff edge, close their eyes and step out into the air".

The Costa Book Awards is the only major UK book prize open solely to authors resident in the UK and Ireland and also, uniquely, recognises some of the most enjoyable books published in the last year across five categories – First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book. 

This year’s Costa Book Awards attracted 708 entries, the most received in one year to date. Winners in the five categories, who each receive £5,000, will be announced on Monday 4th January 2021. The overall winner of the 2020 Costa Book of the Year will receive £30,000 and be announced at a virtual ceremony on Tuesday 26th January 2021.