Poems on trans identity and faith shortlisted for prestigious poetry prize
A poetry collection by Manchester Met visiting teaching fellow and graduate exploring themes of trans identity and faith has been shortlisted for the prestigious T.S. Eliot prize.
Dr Rachel Mann’s ‘visceral, decadent, and tender’ second poetry collection Eleanor Among the Saintsis in the running for the poetry prize.
The annual prize awards £25,000 to the best new poetry collection published in the UK or Ireland, with the shortlisted poets receiving £1,500 each.
Dr Mann said: “When I heard that I was on the T.S. Eliot shortlist I was stunned, and I couldn’t take it in. To be on the shortlist for a prize of this importance, alongside poets who I love and admire deeply, is beyond my wildest dreams. I am incredibly proud of Eleanor Among the Saints, but I never imagined that it would resonate so strongly with the judging panel.”
Mann’s second collection Eleanor Among the Saints imagines and reimagines the biography of medieval trans woman, seamstress, and sex worker Eleanor Rykener.
It explores themes of trans identity, faith, and the limits of myth and language in a collection that was described by Magma as ‘visceral, decadent and tender’ and praised by The Guardian for Mann’s language which ‘energises without compromising the soul’s inclination towards the afterlife’.
The collection, which was a Poetry Book Society Spring Recommendation, includes poems that reflect on priesthood in a time of pandemic and sudden death, exploring how praise is an abiding vocation in a world on the edge of extinction.
Mann is an Anglican priest who was appointed as the Church of England’s first transgender archdeacon, scholar, poet, and broadcaster. She is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at Manchester Met’s Manchester Writing School and graduated in 2012 with an MA in Creative Writing and a PhD in 2017.
She is author of 13 books, including her debut collection A Kingdom of Love (Carcanet, 2019) and the acclaimed non-fiction Fierce Imaginings: The Great War, Ritual, Memory, and God (Darton Longman and Todd, 2017).
Mann has written comment pieces for The Church Times, The Times and The Guardian, as well as being a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s Thought For The Day.
Her research interests include sexuality, queer theory, and nineteenth-century poetry, particularly the intersections between feminism, trans identity, and poetic performance.
The ten shortlisted poets will read from their work at the T.S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Readings on January 12, 2025 and winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on January 13, 2025.
The T.S. Eliot Prize, which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, is run by the T.S Eliot Foundation. It is the most valuable prize in British poetry and the only major poetry prize that is judged purely by established poets.
