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O'Brien wins richest poetry prize

Sean O'Brien has won the Poetry Book Society's T S Eliot Prize 2007 for The Drowned Book (Picador). The newly increased prize money of £15,000 was awarded to O'Brien tonight (14th January), with coverage on BBC Radio 3's "Night Waves" programme. It follows the poet's win of the Forward prize for best collection last year.

The shortlist also featured Ian Duhig's The Speed of Dark, Alan Gillis's Hawks and Doves, Sophie Hannah's Pessimism for Beginners, Mimi Khalvati's The Meanest Flower, Frances Leviston's Public Dream, Sarah Maguire's The Pomegranates of Kandahar, Edwin Morgan's A Book of Lives, Fiona Sampson's Common Prayer, and Matthew Sweeney's Black Moon. They each receive £1,000.

Peter Porter, chair of the judges, said: "Sean O’Brien is undoubtedly a major artist whose winning collection, The Drowned Book, is fierce, funny and deeply melancholy."

The Poetry Book Society also announced the winner of the Shadowing Scheme, which went to Holly Stevenson of Dame Alice Harpur School in Bedford for her piece on Sophie Hannah's Pessimism for Beginners. Stevenson's work will be published by emagazine and Guardian online.

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