WELLWATER
I didn’t know what I had,
drove the watertruck underage to the well
in a swimsuit, anointed with baby oil
to encourage a uniform exposure,
a mild burn atop the tank as it filled
in that burgeoning era of means
to an end. It was a chore
to attend this site of worship
from which song was drawn to feed the souls
of planted trees not native to that place,
as we were not native to that place,
our glyphosate on the wind, our malathion,
dust of gravel roads that bore vehicles
of gas well company agents,
fracking derricks across the county
appearing before, as we said, we knew it.
Blondie tore a strip off the wheatfield,
the tank cooled as the level rose
and I descended to start the engine
so the radio wouldn’t drain the battery —
a mistake I’d made and lived to regret,
which is the only way I ever learn anything.
It took 75 minutes. The things you remember.
My last act before closing the tap
to take the hose by the neck and drink,
taste the cathedral’s rock and temperature,
the water hard and the table high.
The water then, you could still drink it.
From Wellwater by Karen Solie, published by Picador
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Last night Karen Solie won the T.S. Eliot poetry prize for Wellwater in a beautiful ceremony at the Wallace Collection in London. Judges Michael Hofmann (Chair), Patience Agbabi and Niall Campbell chose the T.S. Eliot Prize 2025 Shortlist from 177 poetry collections submitted by 64 British and Irish publishers. The news was announced by the T.S. Eliot Foundation and Chair of the Judges Michael Hoffman who praised "Karen Solie (as) an outstanding winner. The poems of Wellwater come from the whole of an adventurously lived life. They hold the two sentiments, The world is a beautiful place / The world is a terrible place, in perfect equipoise. They offer no happy endings, no salvation in past or future, in epiphany or private happiness. And yet they are anything but grim, with an ironic humour that plays over our increasingly euphemism-hungry culture." Huge congratulations to all the shortlisted poets too, especially our recent PBS Selections Sarah Howe, Isabelle Baafi and Catherine-Esther Cowie.
Order here with 25% off for PBS Members
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If you missed the T.S. Eliot Prize Readings at Southbank Centre you can catch a full recording hosted by the wonderful Ian McMillan on The Verb on BBC Radio 4 this Sunday at 5.10pm here. In the meantime here's a recording of Karen Solie reading from Wellwater on the T.S. Eliot Prize Youtube channel. Karen Solie grew up in southwest Saskatchewan, Canada. Wellwater (Picador Poetry) is her sixth collection. She has won the Dorothy Livesay Award, Pat Lowther Award, Trillium Poetry Prize, the Griffin Prize, and was joint winner of the 2025 Forward Prize for Best Collection. She has been shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize. A 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, Karen Solie teaches for half of the year at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and lives the rest of time in Canada.
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T.S. ELIOT BUNDLE OFFER
If you're inspired to read the full shortlist then look no further! We're delighted to be the official online booksellers for the T.S. Eliot prize. Don't forget PBS members can enjoy all ten books for only £82.50 including free UK postage. Please remember to enter your member discount code at the final check-out stage for your discount. The bundle offer includes all of these books above including the winner. If you're based outside the UK please email us for a postage quote.
PBS Members can order all ten books for only £82.50 & free UK postage
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