Taking a stand...poet Alice Oswald

"I'm uncomfortable about the fact that Aurum Funds, an investment company which exclusively manages funds of hedge funds, is sponsoring the administration of the Eliot Prize; I think poetry should be questioning not endorsing such institutions and for that reason I'm withdrawing from the Eliot shortlist,"....

"Alice Oswald withdraws from TS Eliot prize in protest at sponsor Aurum"

The poet, shortlisted for much-praised collection Memorial, objects to investment company's focus on hedge funds.

by

Alison Flood

December 6th, 2011

guardian.co.uk

Award-winning poet Alice Oswald has pulled out of prestigious poetry award the TS Eliot prize in protest over its sponsorship by an investment company.

Oswald's new collection Memorial, a retelling of the Iliad focusing on the 200-plus ordinary soldiers who died rather than on the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, was shortlisted for the £15,000 TS Eliot prize alongside nine other books in October. The Poetry Book Society, which runs the award and loses its Arts Council funding next year, a decision which was protested by more than 100 poets in April, announced a new three-year sponsorship for the prize from private investment management firm Aurum Funds at the same time as it revealed its shortlist in October.

But Oswald, who won the TS Eliot award in 2002 for her collection Dart, said today in a statement released by her publisher Faber & Faber that she was withdrawing from the running for this year's prize.

"I'm uncomfortable about the fact that Aurum Funds, an investment company which exclusively manages funds of hedge funds, is sponsoring the administration of the Eliot Prize; I think poetry should be questioning not endorsing such institutions and for that reason I'm withdrawing from the Eliot shortlist," said the Devon-based poet.

Aurum, which the Poetry Book Society said in October manages assets worth over £1.5bn "in a thoughtful and stable manner" for investors including charities, is not the first financial institution to sponsor a literary award. The Booker prize is sponsored by the Man Group, an alternative investment management business, while the Sunday Times short story award is supported by EFG Private Bank.

And Oswald is not the first author to protest a prize's sponsorship. In 2003, Hari Kunzru rejected the John Llewellyn Rhys prize over its sponsorship by the Mail on Sunday: "By accepting, I would have been giving legitimacy to a publication that has, over many years, shown itself to be extremely xenophobic," he said. John Berger, meanwhile, donated half of his Booker prize winnings to the Black Panther movement in protest against the involvement of Booker – the award's original sponsor – in Caribbean trade, while Janet and Allan Ahlberg asked not to be entered for the Nestlé Children's Book Prize over its controversial sponsorship.

Both Aurum and the Poetry Book Society declined to comment on Oswald's decision. Chris Holifield, director of the Poetry Book Society, said Oswald would not be replaced on the shortlist with another contender. "It's too late to do that, which is unfortunate as there were other good people who would have liked to be on the shortlist," she said.

The remaining nine poets in the running for the award are John Burnside, Carol Ann Duffy, Leontia Flynn, David Harsent, John Kinsella, Esther Morgan, Daljit Nagra, Sean O'Brien and Bernard O'Donoghue. The winner will be announced on 16 January.