Source : Times of India
Ocean Vuong,Vietnamese-born poet, has won the 2017 T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize, for his collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds .
The T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry is one of the most prestigious poetry awards. Named after the famous poet, it was run by the Poetry Book Society for years, it’s money donated by T. S. Eliot’s widow, Mrs Valerie Eliot. However now it is run and funded by the T S Eliot Foundation. Every year the winner is awarded £20,000 and the runners-up win £1500 each, however in celebration of its 25th year, the winner was awarded £25,000.
Ocean Vuong was Born in Saigon but raised and educated in America. His poems bare his pain and vulnerabilities and their imagery is clear to visualise if confusing to understand. Night Sky With Exit Wounds is Vung’s debut collection of poems. The Chair of Judges Bill Herbert said, “(The book) deals with the aftermath of war and migration over three generations. It is a compellingly assured debut, the definitive arrival of a significant voice.”
The poets who were shortlisted for the award are Tara Bergin, Caroline Bird, Roddy Lumsden, Douglas Dunn, Leontia Flynn, Michael Symmons Roberts, Robert Minhinnicks and Cypriot James Sheard.
