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NEXT GENERATION POETS

We're delighted to announce that the Poetry Book Society (PBS) has been awarded a Major Projects Grant from Arts Council England to deliver Next Generation Poets (NGP), with generous support from the T.S. Eliot Foundation, Folio Society and a Tower Poetry Development Grant.

Beginning in 1994 as New Generation Poets, the PBS ran Next Generation Poets in 2004 and 2014 to celebrate the 20 best debut poets of the decade. NGP has launched the careers of distinguished poets such as Kae Tempest, Daljit Nagra and Simon Armitage. Now in its 4th iteration, this exciting new NGP chapter will also mark the Poetry Book Society's 10th anniversary in Newcastle upon Tyne. We can't wait to share the Next Generation Poets with you through an ambitious programme of 20 events for the 20 poets of the decade throughout 2027.

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THE NGP TOUR... COMING SOON...

29th April 2027

SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY, PARIS

Save the date and watch this space for more news soon.

23rd June 2027

SOUTHBANK CENTRE, LONDON

Tickets go on sale on the Southbank Centre website in December.

OUR JUDGES

Simon Armitage

(Chair) Poet Laureate

Simon Armitage was born and grew up in West Yorkshire. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and the PEN Prize for Translation. He has published over a dozen poetry collections, and his recent books Dwell and Blossomise were Sunday Times bestsellers. His major new poetry collection New Cemetery was published in September 2025. Armitage also writes, records and performs with the band LYR and has received an Ivor Novello Award for his song writing. He is the author of two novels and three non-fiction bestsellers: All Points North, Walking Home and Walking Away. A regular broadcaster, who also writes for television and radio, Armitage presented the popular BBC Radio 4 series The Poet Laureate has Gone to his Shed and, more recently, My Poetry and Other Animals. An award-winning dramatist, his plays The Last Days of Troy and his contemporary spin on Hansel and Gretel were performed at Shakespeare’s Globe. Armitage is Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 2019.

MALIKA BOOKER

Poet

Malika Booker is a British poet of Guyanese and Grenadian parentage. Her collection Pepper Seed (Peepal Tree Press, 2013) was shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize and features on the A Level English Literature syllabus. Malika Booker is the first woman to win the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem twice – in 2020 for 'The Little Miracles' and in 2023 for 'Libation'. She is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.

IMTIAZ DHARKER

Poet

Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist, video film-maker, awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2014, Chancellor of Newcastle University UK since 2020. She reads to over 40,000 students a year with Poetry Live, has been Poet in Residence at Cambridge University Library and often works across art forms in collaboration with dancers, composers and artists. Her seven collections include Over the Moon and her latest, Shadow Reader, all published by Bloodaxe Books UK. She has had eleven solo exhibitions of drawings and scripts and directs video films for non-government organisations in the area of shelter, education and community health.

DALJIT NAGRA

Poet

Daljit Nagra is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University, Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature, Fellow of Society of Authors, a PBS Next Generation Poet, and presenter of the weekly Poetry Extra on Radio 4 Extra. Daljit Nagra, MBE, has published four poetry collections, all with Faber & Faber, which have won the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem and Best First Book, the South Bank Show Decibel Award and the Cholmondeley Award, and have been shortlisted for the Costa Prize and twice for the TS Eliot Prize. His 2023 collection indiom was a PBS Choice. His latest collection is Yiewsley.

HANAN ISSA

Poet

Hanan Issa is a Welsh-Iraqi poet, artist, and film-maker from Cardiff. In 2022, she was announced as the National Poet of Wales, the first Muslim to hold the position. Her publications include her poetry collection My Body Can House Two Hearts and her children’s poetry anthology And I Hear Dragons. Her winning monologue With Her Back Straight was performed at the Bush Theatre as part of the Hijabi Monologues. She is part of the writers room for Channel 4’s award-winning series We Are Lady Parts. Her work has been featured on Radio 3 and Radio 4.

SINéAD MORRISSEY

Poet

Sinéad Morrissey was born in Northern Ireland in 1972 and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. She has published six collections with Carcanet as well as a selected poems, Found Architecture (2020). Her awards include a Lannan
Literary Fellowship (2007), First Prize in the UK National Poetry Competition (2007), the Irish Times Award (2009, 2013) and the T.S. Eliot Prize for her fifth collection, Parallax, in 2013. In 2016 she received the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2020 Sinéad Morrissey was named the European Poet of Freedom by the City of Gdańsk, Poland and in 2024 she was the recipient of the Seamus Heaney Award (Japan).

JADE CUTTLE

Poet & Reviewer

Jade Cuttle is a poet, novelist, academic and The Observer's poetry critic. After working at The Times as an Arts Commissioning Editor, she now presents programs like Digging for Words on Radio 3 in her role as a BBC New Generation Thinker. She’s an award-winning poet and singer-songwriter of Algal Bloom, an album of nature-inspired poem-songs, and has won a Northern Writers’ Award, Future Worlds Prize-shortlisting, Bridport Prize longlisting and Arts Council Funding.
Photographer credit: Andrzej Bugajski.

TED HODGKINSON

Head of Literature and Spoken Word, Southbank Centre

Ted Hodgkinson is Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre, Europe’s largest arts centre. Since taking up the role, he has launched a range of new initiatives, from the Southbank Centre’s New Poets Collective to Indie Night, which champions independent publishing. He leads the programming for the London Literature Festival and a range of cross-arts projects and festivals featuring world-renowned authors and cultural icons. His previous experience encompasses roles at Granta and the British Council, overseeing programming in the Middle East and South Asia. He has judged numerous awards, including the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, and was chair of judges for the International Booker Prize in 2020. He is a trustee of English PEN, New Writing North and The Arts Foundation. He has twice been named among The Bookseller’s 100 most influential people in publishing and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

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THE NEXT GENERATION TOUR

Watch this space for 20 events for the 20 poets of the decade across 2027 from South Shields to the Southbank Centre; Durham Book Festival; Shakespeare's Globe; StAnza Poetry Festival, St Andrews; Ledbury Poetry Festival; National Writer's Centre, Norwich; The Bound, North Tyneside; National Poetry Centre, Leeds; York Poetry Pharmacy; Manchester Poetry Library; Shakespeare & Co, Paris and Kolkata International Poetry Festival. The Poetry Takeaway will bring NGP poets to football stadiums and The British Council will grow international audiences for NGP through their physical libraries in South Asia and digital libraries network in over 30 countries. We're also running a major CYP outreach programme, match-funded by Tower Poetry, with lead partners Poetry By Heart and National Poetry Centre to reach around 3000 schools; an NGP mentorship scheme with the Writing Squad's 16-22 year olds and a reviewers programme with the Poetry Society's Young Poets Network.