Awards
2023 Patron Stephen Spender Trust
2023 indiom (pub Faber & Faber) Selected a Poetry Book Society Choice for Autumn
2022 QAA Benchmark for English
2022 Honorary Fellow, Homerton College, University of Cambridge
2021 National REF Panel 27
2021 Chair of the Royal Society of Literature
2021 Council Society of Authors
2021 Lead Advisor Poetry By Heart
2018 - Elected to the Council of the Royal Society of Literature
2018 Winner of the Cholmondeley Award
2017 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
2016 Selected as a Trustee of the Arvon Foundation
2014 Winner of the Royal Society of Arts' Travelling Scholarship
2014 Selected as a New Generation Poet by the Poetry Book Society
2014 Shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize
2012 Shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize
2008 Arts Council Grant for the Arts
2008 Won The South Bank Show Decibel Prize...more
2007 Costa Poetry prize nomination...more
2007 Won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection
2007 Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award
2007 Shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex New Writers Award for Poetry
2007 Shortlisted for the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize
2004 Won the Forward Poetry Prize for Best Individual Poem
2003 First ever Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice
2003 Oh My Rub! (Smith/Doorstop) Won the Poetry Pamphlet Competition
2003 Pamphlet selected as one of the Guardian Poetry Books of the year
Literary Commitments - Highlights
2017 Appointed Trustee of the Arvon Foundation
2016 Patron of Harrow Arts Centre
2016 Patron Southlands Arts Centre.
2015 Radio 4s first ever Poet in Residence from October 2015 - October 2017...more
July 2014 – June 2015 Poet in Residence at Keats’ House
2014 October – December The Sage in Residence at Eton College
2013 Guest Faculty at Banff
2013 Judge of Poetry By Heart (national schools competition)
2013 Elected Board Member of the Poetry Archive
2013 Judge Kent & Sussex Poetry Competition
2012 Ilkley Festival Poet in Residence & Judge of the Ilkley Poetry Prize
2012 Judge David Cohen Prize
2012 Judge Costa Poetry Prize & overall judge of all categories
2012 Judge Greenheart Poetry Competition
2012 Committee of Poetry Archive
2012 Read at Dubai Literary Festival
2011 Read at International Poetry Festival Rotterdam
2011 Read at Amsterdam Poetry Festival
2011 Read at Galle Literary Festival
2011 Writer in Residence at Goldsmiths College
2010 MC of TS Eliot Poetry Prize
2010 Read at John Hewitt Poetry Festival
2010 Committee Poetry Book Society
2010 Judge Christopher Tower Poetry Prize
2009 Annual Judge of the Simon Powell Poetry Prize
2009 Judge National Poetry Competition
2009 Ledbury Poetry in Residence & Judge of the Ledbury Poetry Prize
2008 Judge Foyles Young Poets
2008 Judge Guardian First Book Award
2008 Judge Samuel Johnson Prize
2008 Read at Toronto Literature Festival
2007 Read at Dun Laoghaire Poetry Festival
2007 Read at Calgary Wordfest & at the Banff Literary Festival