Along with Simon Armitage, Don Paterson has to be one of my favourite living poets. I absolutely loved his collection, Landing Light, which I keep handy to dip into every now and then.
So I was delighted to wake up on this National Poetry Day, which happily coincides with my birthday this year, only to discover that he has won the Forward Prize for the second time with Rain, his most recent collection. I haven’t yet read it as it’s only just out in hardback but I did order it straight away from Amazon today – as a birthday treat! – and can’t wait for it to drop through my letterbox. So, in celebration of his win, Don Paterson is officially Poet of the Month here at the Nut Press. We’ll be re-reading Landing Light and soaking up the certain pleasures of Rain when it arrives. Congratulations to Don!
You can read more about this story on the BBC News website here: Poet Paterson wins £10,000 prize
The article also mentions the results of an online poll which the BBC ran to find out the Nation’s favourite poet. You can see the results here. No, Don Paterson wasn’t in the running for that, although Simon Armitage was. However, it was Benjamin Zephaniah alone who finished in the top ten – at #3 – to take top honours among the living poets. The rest of the poll results read like a Dead Poet’s Society with TS Eliot narrowly beating John Donne to the top spot.
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