The Commonwealth Poetry Prize was an annual poetry prize established in 1972,Alastair Niven, 'The Commonwealth poetry prize', in Richard Maltby and Peter Quartermaine, eds., The Commonwealth: a common culture, pp.53-62. 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.
In 1985 the prize received sponsorship from British Airways. £11,000 prize money was provided for the prize, which was advertised as "the world's most comprehensive award for poetry".News & Notes, PN Review 44, July–August 1985. Accessed 1 September 2020.
Poems by 35 winners of the prize, each introduced with a brief biographical note, were collected in a 1987 anthology, Under another Sky.Alastair Niven, ed., Under another sky: an anthology of Commonwealth Poetry Prize winners. Manchester, England: Carcanet, 1987.
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)
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